’For some businesses, there may be a long road ahead, so we urge brokers to start talking to clients now,’ says managing partner

Fenchurch Law has warned brokers of an upcoming deadline for filing Covid-19 business interruption (BI) claims.

The legal experts said that limitation period for such claims will expire in March 2026.

This means brokers will have to ensure their clients have filed any BI claims within the next 11 months, or face being time-barred from compensation opportunities.

Fenchurch Law’s managing partner, Joanna Grant, said: “For some businesses, there may be a long road ahead, so we urge brokers to start talking to clients now, long before the liability period runs out.”

Policy wording

Grant added: “During the last five years, we’ve fought for clients to get a fair outcome from their insurers. Though the pandemic was unprecedented, insurance policy wordings should be fair, proportionate and transparent and we have found time and time again that this was not the case.

“We’re still coming up against legal challenges regarding how to apply policy wordings, most recently the non-damage denial of access appeal brought by Liberty, which found for policyholders in holding that in composite policies, ‘any one loss’ limits applied separately to each policyholder rather than in aggregate across all policyholders.”

However, Fenchurch Law also explained that a series of high-profile battles between insurers and policyholders over BI wording has led to the expansion of the scope of BI policies.

As a result, the law firm claimed that many policyholders have an increased likelihood of receiving compensation for loss of business during the early months of the pandemic.

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