Property Temporarily Off-Premises

October 12, 2015

My question concerns the definition of “temporarily” as used in the business personal property off-premises at a temporary location coverage. We have an insured who is allowing a nonprofit use of a copy machine for a short, yet undetermined, period of time. While the copy machine is off our insured's premises, I assume there is coverage, but for how long?

Connecticut Subscriber

Looking at the ISO CP 00 10, the policy does not define the term “temporarily” in the coverage extension for property temporarily off-premises at a location the insured does not own, lease, or operate. The ISO rules do not specify an amount of time. We did not turn up any case law addressing this term in property policies. Merriam-Webster Online defines “temporarily” as “during a limited time,” which does not offer much more guidance on how long temporarily is, but it does indicate that it is a fixed time that does end at some point. So, if the insured was indefinitely letting the nonprofit use the copier, that is not the intent of the extension, but there is nothing in the policy to limit the amount of time it can be temporarily used—it just cannot be a permanent situation.