Brookfield hotel REIT sues insurers for denying pandemic claims

The Real Dea ^ | June 23, 2022 | Orion Jones

[george76]

Owner of Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt-branded lodging decries “sham” process..

Hospitality Investors Trust, a hotel investor bankrupted by the pandemic and taken over by Brookfield Property Group, is taking its insurers into court over Covid-related losses.

The private REIT, which owns hotels branded by Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in New York against six insurers over a “sham investigation” meant to delay and deny up to $150 million in coverage “under a broad ‘all-risk’ commercial property insurance,” according to the complaint.

The hospitality company claimed its insurance policies cover “physical loss or damage,” “business interruption losses,” and “coverage for communicable disease,” without the requirement of physical loss or damage.

The insurers dispute the claim that the pandemic caused physical damage and argue claims for loss or damage due to the pandemic are excluded by the policies, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint listed as defendants Allied World Assurance Company, Arch Specialty Insurance, Endurance American Specialty Insurance, Interstate Fire & Casualty, Starr Surplus Lines, Westport Insurance Corp. and Zurich American Insurance. The companies either declined or did not respond to a request for comment.

Hospitality Investors put its losses due to business interruption during the pandemic at $54 million —at least — across more than 12,000 hotel rooms at 98 properties nationwide. The company likens Covid to airborne asbestos fibers, carbon monoxide, wildfire smoke and pervasive odors including cat urine — “all of which [the courts have found] to cause direct physical loss or damage to property,” the lawsuit claims.

The company was, in part, a victim of timing. It refinanced its portfolio with a $1.04 billion debt deal in 2019 as occupancy rates showed steady growth, but could not service the debt after the pandemic took hold and throttled revenue across the industry.

...

Insurers have largely avoided paying claims made by businesses that lost money due to the pandemic. Policies rarely cover the effects of communicative disease explicitly, and courts have largely declined to interpret the pandemic as causing property damage. Insurance products that cover business interruptions not related to property loss are uncommon, according to a 2021 report from the OECD.

Federal legislation proposed last year by New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney that would require insurers to offer business interruption policies to cover some losses from infectious disease outbreaks remains in limbo. Legislation proposed in some states, including New York, requiring insurers to retroactively offer pandemic coverage were met with early federal resistance.

The hospitality industry suffered in the wake of the pandemic as waves of layoffs and deep cuts to revenue crashed over it with each new variant of the virus.

Lawsuits recently filed by three New York City hotels against insurers for pandemic-related losses are ongoing.

[T.B. Yoits]

The interference in business by corrupt politicians colluding with pharmaceutical korporations is going to have ripple effects for generations.

The insurers won't pay claims for a "pandemic" so the victim companies will up the ante for whistleblowers to expose the Scamdemic.

Going forward, companies want "pandemic" insurance but the insurance companies will rightly demand a premium price. Unable to pass those costs to customers, the victim companies will instead lobby government to use taxpayer money, exactly like they did with taxpayer funded flood insurance in some areas.

[Paladin2]

Cuomo and Vilhelm DaCommieo are guilty as heck.

[Steely Tom]

The insurers won't pay claims for a "pandemic" so the victim companies will up the ante for whistleblowers to expose the Scamdemic.

I like the sound of that.

[Don W]

THIS is one of the reasons people utterly LOATHE insurance companies: They use every possible means to avoid honoring their commitments. They lie, cheat, ignore claims, and are unethical and dishonest.

These are their GOOD characteristics.

They are ready, willing, and enthusiastic about receiving your premiums, and are all smiles during the sale of their product. Then you make a claim HAHAHAHAHAHA

Where I am, there were some wildfires a couple of years ago. While the fire completely missed the town, doing some minor property damage and remaining mostly confined to the wildlands, insurance premiums WENT UP in the area, even though the fire danger had been greatly reduced by the removal of hazardous levels of duff in the forest.

I am not at all a fan of insurance companies.

[Alberta's Child]

Put yourself in the shoes of the insurance company here. You sell your customer an insurance policy that covers the loss of revenue if their place of business is shut down due to building damage or contamination. The important point here is that you, as the insurance company, can do a lot of underwriting work to measure the risk … because you know a lot of facts about the business and the building (type of business, location, zoning, other businesses in the building, etc.).

Now imagine your customer’s place of business is shut down for an extended period of time not because of anything related to contamination or building damage, but because some inept Nazi politicians decided to shut down the business and impose all kinds of restrictions over a “pandemic” that is not much more lethal than an ordinary seasonal flu.

If these REITs are facing huge losses over COVID-related restrictions, they should take it up with the Nazis who imposed the lockdowns and other restrictions in the first place.

[T.B. Yoits]

The government is going to use taxpayer money to make these companies whole because if they don’t, these companies will never comply with a lockdown again and the government can’t allow that.

[packrat35]

You remind me to post: State Farm Sucks! I was treated like trash by them for 11 months recently and I will never stop talking $hit about them till I die.