To make a very long answer short…probably not.

Imagine this. You are the owner of a 4 story office building and someone in your building becomes infected with a virus, disease, or there is some other contamination. Under these circumstances, your building is forced to become quarantined. For this example, let’s say those tenants in your 4 story office building are paying anywhere between 50k-70k per month on a lease. Under a quarantine circumstance, those tenants have the legal right to break leases because your building no longer provides a safe working environment. What now? 

In the case your building becomes unworkable for your tenants, like in a quarantine situation, you and your business will suffer an immediate loss of revenue. This can be a scary and risky situation for any business owner to be in, often resulting in a lot of unanswered questions and confusion. You may be faced with an abatement of rents and having to shut down your business for an extended period of time. This devastation could easily bankrupt you and your business within weeks, if not days. Look at the recent situation in Kirkland, Washington, where the Life Care Center nursing home was infected by the Coronavirus, which resulted in at least 25 of the 50 Coronavirus deaths in the state, as of March 17th. An un-contained and undetected virus, disease or contaminant can have devastating and even deadly effects to your business in a very short period of time.

In general, businesses like medical facilities, government organizations, schools, and universities are likely to have more broad forms of coverage. On the other hand, businesses within office buildings, malls, and high rises are oftentimes specifically excluded in their coverage due to the amount of risk with losses during catastrophic events. There are policies that have exclusions and then there are policies that are written with absolute exclusions. An absolute exclusion has zero coverage under any circumstance for contaminants no matter how it is transmitted. It’s extremely important to have someone review your coverage so you are educated about where you stand and what is covered, if anything. So during this time, will your business or building be covered in the case someone becomes infected with COVID-19? Unfortunately, the probability of this is highly unlikely. 

With the rampant growth of the Coronavirus within the United States, it’s important to get prepared in any way you can. Symptoms of the virus don’t always show up immediately and there has even been recent research to suspect that carriers of the virus may never develop symptoms at all. The CDC, WHO and White House Administration have all recommended social distancing, limiting your time out in public, and practicing diligent hygiene. In order to avoid the situation as we’ve seen in Italy, these recommendations are made so that the virus doesn’t spread in an uncontrolled and rapid way–ultimately impacting your business and its bottom line.

You never think it could happen to you but it can. Take a few minutes out of your day to speak with a licensed professional who can answer any questions or discuss your concerns. Get to know us before you need us. Call Brandon Lewis and our team at Strategic Claim Consultants at (844) 701-9995 today.

Do you have a property that may need specialty mitigation? Visit our sister company, Aftermath Consulting Group, at www.aftermathCG.com. Aftermath is a global consulting firm that specializes in Risk Management, Dispute Resolution, Emergency Preparedness (POA – Plan of Action), along with services like Expert Witness, Inspection services, among several others.