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.
