Property Damage

Disputes involving claims for all kinds of material damage to physical property are included in this section. To date, all such claims have benefited from the process of Independent Evaluation, resulting directly in a swift and successful resolution.

The core area involves resolving claims for losses, both physical and economic, caused by fire, flood, by natural forces or by contamination. Claims arising out of fire and flood cover a wide spectrum of causes, but typically negligence in the management or control of fire, or the supply or installation in buildings of faulty equipment, with electrical or plumbing equipment being amongst the most common examples. Contamination claims typically involve the escape of some form of oil from tanks or pipes.

In these core cases, at least one side, and possibly all sides, are backed by insurers, either as claimants pursuing subrogated claims or as defendants for insured tortfeasors. These sorts of claims, where commercially minded parties are keenly seeking swift and economical resolution, have shown themselves to be eminently suited to independent evaluation.

All claims for damage to property however are susceptible to the benefits of IE’s bespoke process. One particular expanding area is claims for business losses caused by damage to profit-earning chattels.

It is striking how quickly IE has managed to achieve resolution of disputes that have raged for years. Consequently, it is no surprise that IE is increasingly being turned to within a matter of weeks or months of the event giving rise to the dispute.