Hotel Fire Damage and “Property in Your Control” Exclusion

We have a claim where an employee of our insured started a fire in a hotel room. A very hot hair dryer was placed on a bed. The majority of the claim was the replacement of the mattress

Would only the damage to the actual hotel room (premises) be covered and the personal property (mattress) be excluded?

Below please find our policy language regarding the exclusion for “Damage to Property in Your Control.”

Damage To Property In Your Control

“Property damage” to:

a. Property you own, rent, or occupy;

b. Premises you sell, give away or abandon, if the “property damage” arises out of any part of those premises; c. Property loaned to you; or d. Personal property in your care, custody or control.

This exclusion does not apply to damage by fire to premises rented to you.

Thank you for your help.

California Subscriber

Based on the wording of the exclusion, the mattress (personal property) would be excluded due to d., but the room would not be excluded because of the exception to the exclusion for damage by fire to premises rented by the insured.

However, because the policy does not define “premises”, it is possible to see how one could argue that the premises includes the contents in the premises, i.e. the mattress in this case. Still, we think “premises” and “personal property” are listed separately in the exclusion because they are intended to be considered two distinct things.