{"id":902746,"date":"2024-05-28T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=902746"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:31:28","slug":"reasonable-care-maintaining-heat-unoccupied-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/reasonable-care-maintaining-heat-unoccupied-home\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Reasonable Care for Maintaining Heat in an Unoccupied Home?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ashley Eldridge and Paul Ferland | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propertyinsurancelawobserver.com\/2024\/05\/21\/what-is-reasonable-care-for-maintaining-heat-in-an-unoccupied-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Property Insurance Law Observer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The New York Supreme Court recently weighed in on what constitutes \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/technical-expert-assessing-standard-of-care\/\">reasonable care<\/a>\u201d to maintain heat in the context of a first-party insurance policy exclusion requiring such reasonable care. In&nbsp;<em>Michael Zimmerman v. Leatherstocking Cooperative Insurance Company<\/em>, CV-23-0362, 2024 NY Slip Op 02113 (April 18, 2024), the Plaintiff was in the process of selling his home in Saratoga Springs, New York. The house was insured under a homeowners policy issued by Leatherstocking Cooperative Insurance Company. On January 2, 2019, a real estate broker arrived at the house and discovered extensive water damage. Plaintiff, who had left for an extended vacation a month prior, notified Leatherstocking of the loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was later determined that the damage occurred when a second-floor radiator pipe had frozen and burst. The Policy covered damage arising from frozen pipes but excluded losses \u201cwhile the residence [was] vacant [or] unoccupied (including temporary absence)\u201d unless the Plaintiff had \u201cused reasonable care to\u2026maintain heat in the building or manufactured home; or\u2026shut off the liquid supply and completely empt[ied] the system or domestic appliance.\u201d Leatherstocking denied coverage on the basis that the residence was unoccupied, and Plaintiff had failed to exercise reasonable care to either turn off the water or maintain heat. Plaintiff filed suit alleging that Leatherstocking breached the insurance contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On review of Plaintiff\u2019s appeal from a denial of partial summary judgment, the Court first discussed the appropriate burdens of proof. As the moving party, Plaintiff had the burden of proving that \u201cno exclusion precluded coverage,\u201d which was not to be confused with the carrier\u2019s burden of establishing an applicable exclusion at trial. The Court explained that the \u201cultimate burden of proof at trial plays no part in the assessment of whether there are relevant factual issues to be presented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court went on to find that Plaintiff failed to demonstrate an absence of material facts on whether reasonable care was taken to maintain heating while the home was unoccupied. Although presenting evidence that the home was insulated, the heating system was operational, and thermostats were set to 55 degrees, there was contradictory evidence on whether the boiler malfunctioned and with regard to the scope of the agreement for Plaintiff\u2019s realtor to monitor his home. Thus, despite what appeared to be a well-developed record, the Court reaffirmed the trial court\u2019s denial of Plaintiff\u2019s motion for partial summary judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Zimmerman&nbsp;<\/em>case demonstrates that \u201creasonable care\u201d will continue to be defined on a case-by-case basis. However, requiring a Plaintiff to prove the inapplicability of a policy exclusion may make it more challenging for a moving party to prevail at the summary judgment stage. Insurance carriers should continue to ensure there is a factually developed record and work to incorporate clear and concise policy language to avoid ambiguities and unintended coverages for losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ashley Eldridge and Paul Ferland | Property Insurance Law Observer The New York Supreme Court recently weighed in on what constitutes \u201creasonable care\u201d to maintain heat in the context of a first-party insurance policy exclusion requiring such reasonable care. In&nbsp;Michael Zimmerman v. Leatherstocking Cooperative Insurance Company, CV-23-0362, 2024 NY Slip Op 02113 (April 18, 2024),&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/reasonable-care-maintaining-heat-unoccupied-home\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What Is Reasonable Care for Maintaining Heat in an Unoccupied Home?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10721],"tags":[9895,10831,22,23],"class_list":["post-902746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance","tag-advise-consult","tag-duty-of-reasonable-care","tag-insurance","tag-insurance-coverage","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is Reasonable Care for Maintaining Heat in an Unoccupied Home? 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