Insurance Day interviews George Moss about the violence which spread across the UK at the beginning of August:
The Metropolitan Police is coming under increasing pressure to declare the disturbances that have swept across London as a riot, which would open the way for insurers to subrogate some of their claims to the police authority.
Prime Minister David Cameron has taken the unusual step of recalling parliament to discuss the violence which has now spread to other UK cities.
Meanwhile RSA is in line for a £10m-plus claim after a fire destroyed a Sony warehouse in Enfield.
So far the Met Police has assiduously avoided describing the disturbances as a riot, but speaking to reporters London’s Mayor Boris Johnson used the “r” word. Already this week the Association of Police Authorities has suggested minister would want to look again at the Riot (Damages) Act 1886, under which insurers may be able to demand claims back from cash-strapped police authorities for damage caused by riot.
Loss adjusters, striving to count the cost of the incidents across London will be monitoring the communications from the authorities for signs that they can embark on claims against the police authority which have to be filed within 14 days of the losses.
Experienced loss adjuster George Moss, global business director at vrs Vericlaim, cut his teeth on the Southall riots of 1979.
He explained: “At some stage the police will make a statement. In my experience they’re quite quick on making such statements because of the short time period required for submitting claims to the police.”
And he added: “If there’s a difference between this and other events it is that most of the properties affected are commercial properties not domestic and the other thing is in terms of the volume of claims, if you look at the volume of claims in the winter that was tens of thousand sand we’re not looking at anything like that volume. The values will be high, but you haven’t got the sheer volume experienced in the winter.”
Read the full article at Insurance Day