Context
The FCA has released a policy checking tool intended to provide general guidance to support small businesses in checking whether a policy will cover business interruption losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tool has been created based on the outcome of the FCA’s test case and can be found here: https://www.fca.org.uk/decision-tree/business-interruption-insurance-policy-checker.
Key points to note
- The policy checker helps to check whether wording in a policy is the same as, or very similar to, the 21 policies in the ‘representative sample’ considered by the Courts in the FCA’s test case.
- The FCA has also provided general FAQs for policyholders with business interruption insurance which can be found here: https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/business-interruption-insurance-policy-checker/general-faqs-policyholders.
- The FAQs cover the following:
- Guidance on how to make a claim;
- Guidance on disease clauses;
- Guidance where a claim or complaint has already been made;
- Guidance about what to claim for.
- The policy checker will indicate whether a policy is likely to provide cover and the policyholder FAQs will give some further information about how to make a claim.
- The test case does not consider individual policyholders’ claims on their specific facts. Each claim will need to be individually considered to determine whether the policy provides cover for the effects of coronavirus and policyholders are advised to check the extent of cover and what losses are included.