By Chris Reilly, Underwriting Service Manager

Imagine your insured’s customer has provided the insured with keys to their building where the project is taking place. Upon arrival it becomes apparent that the keys are nowhere to be found. It is later discovered a hole in a coat pocket may have been the primary culprit. This creates numerous scenarios that are less than desirable for the client and their office. Best case scenario the keys are found, returned, and no harm is done. However, someone may find the keys and use them to access the office after hours, potentially causing damage or committing theft. Hopefully in this situation, the insured had elected to endorse their policy with the ECP 1096 08 16 Lost Key Coverage endorsement available on our General Liability  combined form policies.

What is the Lost Key coverage endorsement?

Our current Coverage for Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability has an exclusion for “Damage to Property” to exclude “Personal property in the care, custody or control of the insured.” The Lost Key Coverage endorsement provides a giveback for this exclusion stating, “this exclusion does not apply to the loss of other’s keys in your care, custody, or control, subject to the limitations described below for Lost Key Coverage.” Our form will then list the sub-limit per occurrence and aggregate, as well as the deductible.

What does the endorsement actually cover?

Per the ECP 1096 08 16, liability for lost key property damage can be provided only for the actual cost of the keys, the adjustment of the locks to accept new keys, or new locks and the cost of the installation. While these three coverages may not seem costly, consider that some offices will use electronic key systems, not just the physical keys that typically come to mind when discussing keys and locks.

Additionally, the coverage form states that “upon exhaustion of the General Aggregate Limit, we shall have no obligation to make any further payments to, or on behalf of, the insured for defense, indemnification, or otherwise.”

This endorsement can be added to our environmental combined policy as an enhancement to the original policy. We can add this either at binding or post-binding, so if your insured currently has a policy with PartnerOne that does not utilize this coverage, please let us know if they would like to add it!

We are happy to discuss adding this endorsement to your policy should that be an area of interest for your insured, as well as numerous other enhancements our office is able to provide for your coverage.

Visit us online or contact us for more information.