{"id":904602,"date":"2025-07-23T16:20:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904602"},"modified":"2025-07-23T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:20:32","slug":"pre-policy-email-doesnt-constitute-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pre-policy-email-doesnt-constitute-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Policy Email Does Not Constitute A Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Elizabeth Fisher | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.executivesummaryblog.com\/pre-policy-email-does-not-constitute-a-claim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Wiley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States District Court for the Southern District of California, applying California law, has held that an email issued to an insured homeowners association (\u201cHOA\u201d) before the inception of the relevant claims-made policy did not constitute a \u201cClaim\u201d because it failed to identify a specific process that the insured could implement to afford relief and did not insist on compensation or a specific form of non-monetary relief.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.executivesummaryblog.com\/assets\/htmldocuments\/Del%20Mar%20Woods%20v.%20Philadelphia%20Indem.%20Ins.%20Co.%20Public%20Version.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><em>Del Mar Woods v. Philadelphia Indem. Ins. Co.<\/em>, 2025 WL 1798300 (S.D. Cal. June 27, 2025)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The HOA purchased a claims-made policy for the period from March 25, 2022 to March 25, 2023. \u201cClaim\u201d was defined as \u201ca written demand for monetary or non-monetary relief against an Insured.\u201d The terms \u201cdemand\u201d and \u201cnon-monetary relief\u201d were not defined in the policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 20, 2022, homeowners emailed the HOA Board regarding unauthorized hardwood floors that had been installed in the condo above them. The email stated that the homeowners \u201cexpect[ed] the HOA [B]oard to enforce [their] rights as an owner under the [Covenants &amp; Restrictions] and [Rules &amp; Regulations] and promptly resolve the . . . hardwood flooring issue, installed without HOA or our approval.\u201d The February email did not identify specific regulations that entitled the homeowners to relief or expressly indicate an intent to sue if the issue was not resolved. The HOA did not provide the email to the insurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On June 8, 2022, after additional back and forth between the homeowners and the HOA, the homeowners\u2019 counsel issued a letter to the HOA with the subject line \u201cDemand to Enforce [Covenants &amp; Restrictions] and Rules\/Regulations,\u201d insisting upon the HOA\u2019s immediate action to enforce the HOA regulations against the offending residents. The HOA tendered the June 8 letter to the insurer, which denied coverage. The insurer asserted that the Claim was first made via the February 20 email, before the policy incepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court rejected the insurer\u2019s argument that the February 20 email constituted a Claim. Citing California law, the court noted that the undefined term \u201cdemand\u201d means \u201ca request for something under an assertion of right or an insistence on some course of action.\u201d The court held that the February 20 email was not a \u201cdemand\u201d because it was not written by an attorney, failed to identify a specific process that could afford relief, and did not insist on compensation or a specific form of non-monetary relief. The court emphasized that the insurer had not pointed to any California cases in which a court had determined that a \u201cdemand\u201d was made in the absence of a threat of litigation or notice of intent to sue. The court further concluded that the letter did not seek \u201cnon-monetary relief,\u201d which, under California law, means a \u201ccourt-ordered benefit,\u201d because it did not identify any duty the HOA owed under the governing documents to enforce the homeowners\u2019 rights or address their grievance. Accordingly, the court determined that the Claim was first made in June, during the policy period.<\/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>Elizabeth Fisher | Wiley The United States District Court for the Southern District of California, applying California law, has held that an email issued to an insured homeowners association (\u201cHOA\u201d) before the inception of the relevant claims-made policy did not constitute a \u201cClaim\u201d because it failed to identify a specific process that the insured could&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pre-policy-email-doesnt-constitute-claim\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pre-Policy Email Does Not Constitute A Claim<\/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":[9895,95,609,22],"class_list":["post-904602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance","tag-advise-consult","tag-hoa","tag-homeowner-association","tag-insurance","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>Pre-Policy Email Does Not Constitute A Claim - Advise &amp; 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