Three years makes a difference.
A Florida federal court has held that repair costs are to be measured at the time of the loss – not at the time of the later repairs – when calculating actual cash value/replacement cost.
The court considered and applied a common policy provision, which required that the value of covered property be determined “[a]t actual cash value as of the time of loss or damage.”
In West 32nd/33rd Place Warehouse Condominium Assoc., Inc. v. Western World Ins. Co., the plaintiff sought to recover per August 2022 prices, when the loss occurred in October 2019. Repair costs had increased significantly during that time frame; the court held that the “time of loss” provision “must be enforced regardless of which party would benefit from the provisions application….” In reaching that conclusion, the court also noted prior precedent in which policyholders had benefitted from market changes.
Accordingly, the court held that the plaintiff’s loss was properly valued as of the date of the loss.
The Opinion can be found here.
This post was originally published through Horst Krekstein & Runyon’s Property in 60 Seconds Newsletter. If you would like to receive future copies of that newsletter, please contact Sean Dever at sdever@hkr.law.