Insurance Coverage For Collapse – How Has It Changed and Why? Adjusters Internat ional Disaster Recovery Consulting By Robert J. Prahl, CPCU Occasionally, losses occur for which insurance coverage was not contemplated by insurers, yet it is not clear from policy language that the loss is excluded. In such cases, the organizations that draft insurance language usually act swiftly to remedy the situation by introducing exclusions or limitations that will preclude or limit coverage to what was originally intended. A good example is collapse coverage. This is not to say that collapse is not a covered peril under standard property insurance policies, but rather that court decisions have expanded the scope of the coverage well beyond what insurers originally intended. EDI TOR’ S NOTE “To fall or cave in; crumble suddenly.” Webster’s lead definition of “collapse” seems so clear and straightforward as to preclude the possibility of such an event being debatable. Yet in the field of property in...
