COVID-19: Hospitality group action

Mishcon de Reya is advising the Hospitality Insurance Group Action (HIGA), which launched this week, on bringing an action against a range of insurers. The firm has secured funding to cover the policy review exercise and is working with Philip Edey QC, of Twenty Essex Chambers. Any subsequent claim will be funded by third party funders.

According to HIGA, some businesses with broader policy wordings may wrongly have been told they are not covered.

The action will be open to hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs and leisure businesses forced to close and whose insurance company is silent or refusing to honour policies relating to business interruption due to the pandemic.

There is no cost to any UK hospitality business to register with HIGA and have Mishcon review their insurance policy. The firm aims to review all participants’ policies by the end of May.

Mishcon partner Sonia Campbell, who will lead the action, said: ‘Hospitality sector businesses, large and small, have been particularly hard hit by the government-enforced closure during this pandemic and desperately need to mitigate their losses.

‘In times of crisis they expect their insurance to respond. Yet I am hearing time and time again that insurers are either stone-walling, unfairly limiting or simply point-blank refusing to pay out under business interruption policies.

‘This strikes us as something that is open to challenge. I look forward to assisting all members of HIGA in exploring the possibility of a group claim. There may well be some light at the end of this industry’s very dark tunnel.’ 

Businesses will be eligible if their policy includes non-physical damage extensions to cover and is governed by English law, whether they are customers of Axa, China Taiping, RSA, Touchstone, Zurich or any other insurance provider. More information is available at www.HIGAction.com. A separate group has been set up for Hiscox policyholders, which Mishcon is also advising. The Hiscox Action Group can be found at https://hiscoxactiongroup.org.