These are unprecedented times and it is understandable that there is concern regarding our conduct as individuals and businesses. Events are changing rapidly, and we are being asked by many of our policy holders for advice regarding their specific situation. Due to the complexities and individual nature of every person’s situation we are not in a position to offer advice. We request that you consider and follow these recommendations:
This is a claims made policy which means that the Insurer will consider a valid claim they are notified of during the policy period, provided that the incident that led to the claim occurred after the Retroactive Date. If your Policy shows this date as 'Nil' this means that the incident in question could have occurred between ANY date in the past and the date of expiry.
However, once the policy is cancelled you cannot make a claim regardless of when the incident occurred. Due to the nature of this type of policy and dependent on the reason for cancellation you should consider the following:-
It is important to remember that a claim can arise many weeks or months after the incident which caused the claim. Whilst your policy is active you are covered, provided the incident which caused the claim is after the retroactive date. If your retroactive date is Nil then this means from any time in the past up until the expiry date of the policy. Once you cancel the policy you are no longer covered.
The value of having a Nil retroactive date is considerable, but this is only available on the issue of the first policy with us and then subsequent policies provided continuous cover has been maintained. If you think you will need insurance again in the future then, depending on how long you have been uninsured, the retroactive date will either be the date the new policy starts or you will have to pay an additional premium to retain your current retroactive date.
Due to the nature of this type of policy many people maintain a ‘run-off’ period of cover. This is because claims are often made some time after the incident that led to the claim occurred. By maintaining cover for a period of time it allows time for any potential claim to come to light and thus reduces your risk of facing a costly claim when you don’t have insurance cover.
The loss of earnings which you refer to is otherwise known as Business Interruption which unfortunately is not covered by your policy. The following clause can be found in Section 5 of your policy wording.
5.35 Business interruption
any claim arising from any trading loss or trading liability including that arising from the loss of any client, account or business.
In the situation which you describe – ie that a location where you would host your events cancels - you would need to refer to the contract you have with the event location organiser and whether you are entitled to any refund or compensation.
This would not be a matter involving your insurance. If the loss were sufficient enough and the event organiser was in breach of their contractual obligations to you then you may consider making a claim against their insurance for your loss.
There is no option to ‘pause’ a policy and we would strongly recommend against cancellation (please see above).
The policy we offer does not exclude providing services online or virtually. So, if you able to carry out the same work and provide the same service via video chat, online media or recorded messages then this is still covered by the policy.
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