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Contractual

Agent question: “We have not been individually adding Additional Insured endorsements, relying on them being an indemnitee in the ‘insured contract’ wording of the CGL or BOP policies, which gives them AI status without endorsing that on the policy.” Could this agency have a problem, along with their customers?
Contractual risk transfer is a fact of life for any agent working with construction clients. Your client might be the transferor or the transferee or both on the same job. Because insurance is a slave to the contract, you have to understand contractual risk transfer.
If you deal with construction clients, you deal with contractual risk transfer, additional insureds, and primary and noncontributory problems.
Lower tier contractors seem to be fighting back on some contractual insurance requirements – even to the point of making improper claims. One in particular is that making another party an additional insured negates the need to waive recovery rights against that party (often referred to as a waiver of subrogation). Well, these risk management mechanisms have different outcomes and only slightly overlap.
Although we know that interpreting contracts is a matter of law, because our customers routinely execute hold harmless and indemnity agreements with all manner of entities, knowledge of these contractual provisions is of primary importance. It is important that you have insight to help you better understand the workings of these agreement and how your customer’s CGL policy may or may not provide coverage for the liability created by such agreements.
Contractual risk transfer is often confused with insurance coverage; and certificates of insurance are ALWAYS confused for a document with any real meaning or power. This article focuses on one key fact – the insurance policy rules regardless what the contract says.
An insured who leases premises accidentally damaged the building with a backhoe. He has a written lease on the premises and the lease makes him responsible for damage to the property. The agency feels that since this is an 'insured contract,' the exclusion for damage to property you rent does not apply and the damage should be covered under the contractual liability.
Your insureds routinely sign hold harmless agreements with all kinds of entities...property owners, contractors, large corporations, municipalities, and others. How many of these contracts do you think are covered by your insureds' CGL policies and to what extent? In this article, we'll give you a few actual examples that may have you grabbing for the nearest defibrillation machine.
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​127 South Peyton Street
Alexandria VA 22314
​phone: 800.221.7917
fax: 703.683.7556
email: info@iiaba.net

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