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Hundreds of pub owners in Ireland are joining the fight against insurance companies who aren’t paying out COVID-19 related claims.
Following a High Court ruling last week upholding a lawsuit over the matter, more than 600 restaurants are pressuring insurer FBD to honour its policies, threatening lawsuits if they don’t pay out, according to Breaking News Ireland.
Attorneys representing pub owners and Ireland’s Restaurants’ Association said they are ready to start filing complaints to enforce the ruling, according to Breaking News Ireland.
The Restaurants’ Association CEO says its members are desperate for relief and that Ireland’s Central Bank and other regulators should have stepped in sooner to save the pubs.
Noel Anderson, the owner of Dublin’s Lemon & Duke told Reuters FBD should not have waited for a court order to pay out on the claims.
“We were forced to go through 10 months of deep financial uncertainty, significant additional risk in taking this action as well as extensive stress and strain to arrive at an outcome which should have been clear from the outset.”
The showdown started last year in March, when pubs across Europe were closed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Irish pubs, especially ones that don’t serve food, have faced some of the toughest restrictions for the last 10 months.
The owners of these establishments were looking to file a claim on their insurance policies to cover the losses from the resulting drop in foot traffic.
FBD denied those claims, according to Breaking News Ireland, citing that Ireland insurance brokers don’t insure against pandemics, only “specialist brokers” do. FBD also argued the pub closures did not happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pub owners fired back with a lawsuit, claiming the denial was breaching policy contracts and argued their FBD policies were intended to protect them from unexpected events like the COVID-19 related shut downs.
The issue rose to the level of the High Court, which ruled in January pub owners are entitled to claim pay outs by FBD, according to Breaking News Ireland.
The judge assigned to the case disagreed with FBD’s claims it wasn’t required to do so. The ruling affects approximately 1,000 pubs and restaurants in Ireland who made COVID-19 loss claims.
At least 40 restaurant owners have already begun receiving pay outs from FBD, according to Breaking News Ireland.
FBD says it is committed to paying out these claims, according to Reuters. The insurer says it plans to submit interim checks to the pub owners while the court determines specific monetary amounts in damages.
Ireland’s pubs and restaurants enjoyed a brief reopening the week of Christmas. Experts say the current lockdown won’t likely be lifted until April, according to Reuters.
Are you a business owner who has suffered losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Have you taken out an insurance claim? Let us know how it went in the comments below.
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