The QIC Action Group is considering how to best take legal action. It says its members are among the types of businesses that have been worst impacted by the coronavirus crisis and will have been closed for the longest.
It is relevant to operators whose insurance policy is an Eaton Gate Combined Commercial Policy with business interruption cover provided by QIC Europe Ltd.
Members of the group so far include Cliff Nicholls, director of Jump Xtreme trampoline park and soft play area. Nicholls is keen to hear from policyholders in the hospitality sector and include more representation from publicans in the group.
Popular policy
Nicholls told The Morning Advertiser: “We’re not led by solicitors and have not been engaged by a firm of solicitors. It’s a group of businesses trying to get the best result for policyholders in the same boat as us.
“The insurance has been quite widely sold in the pub and restaurant trade.”
The director believes the group is in a strong position because the wording used by the policy matches the wording being used in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s test case this summer.
The FCA has pulled together a sample of policy wordings that it believes represents those being used by insurers to deny businesses payouts for business interruption cover.
In addition to this, several other action groups have been created against different insurers.
Fast paced
QIC’s policy wording stipulates that it will provide indemnity if there is an occurrence of a notifiable disease at the premises, including the discovery of evidence that could result in the presence of this disease or a disease within a 25-mile radius of the site.
QIC Action Group is keen to press ahead with its plans and so has encouraged policyholders who would like to be involved in potential action to get in touch within the next couple of weeks.
Pub operators who wish to contact the group can do so via a contact form on its website.
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