Our insured has just received this email…(see attachment) Although it is stated that he could have coverage under his HO policy, we question under what sections, (Civil Authority)as well as Additional Living Expense. Any thoughts on this?? See below ——————————— The Eastmore 240 East 76th Street New York, New York 10021 The Eastmore – Gas Shutdown Notice #2
Dear Shareholders and Residents:
Yesterday, May 13th Con Edison made an unscheduled inspection of the building's gas system.
Unfortunately, they detected a leak that could not be repaired and mandated shutting down the gas system for the entire building. The house plumber pulled an emergency NYC Department of Buildings permit in order to keep heat and hot water service functioning.
The gas dryers are not working but we are investigating a possible alternative solution.
Management has ordered an electric hot plate for all apartments which should be delivered by next week.
Residents should immediately notify their insurance carrier about the situation. Depending on your homeowners/renters policy, food reimbursement is a possibility, so please keep your receipts. Management has notified the Co-op's insurance carrier and we will seek resident reimbursement if possible.
We have been advised that the necessary repairs are substantial and will require coordination and sign-off with NYC DOB and Con Edison. As part of the process, we will need access to every apartment and each stove will be pulled away from the wall and piping will be inspected.
All residents are certainly interested in knowing how long this process will take to complete. While we would like to provide a definitive answer at this time, it is impossible to do so.
We are advised that a project of this magnitude, unfortunately, will take many months (in the range of 3–9 months) to complete. We will provide updates regularly.
If you have any questions please contact the undersigned at [email protected] or Tom Hickey, Resident Manager at [email protected].
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
New York Subscriber
You have an interesting situation, and it's going to depend on the policy language in play. The standard ISO HO 00 03 provides coverage for additional living expenses if a covered cause of loss under section I has made the premises not fit to live in. The question then becomes what is the covered cause of loss? A leaky gas line is a maintenance issue and not a covered cause of loss.
Likewise, under civil authority, the insured must be prohibited from use of the premises because of direct damage to a neighboring premises by a peril insured against. There doesn't seem to be any damage to a neighboring premises, nor even a prohibition of access to the residence. They are providing hot plates, so the residents aren't being forced to evacuate or stay elsewhere. Civil authority coverage wouldn't apply.
Not every carrier uses the standard ISO policy language, and some forms are more liberal than others. Reviewing the policies is what needs to be done to see if there's any coverage. The gas company is probably trying to be helpful and advise residents to contact their carriers in case they have a relatively liberal policy that could provide coverage.
For a review of additional living expenses, see the article: What Makes a Residence Unfit to Live In?
We have several q&a on additional living expenses, a few are listed below.