A Video Explaining Wear and Tear and Inherent Vice

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Wear and Tear

It is inevitable that objects deteriorate over time and wear out. Even the pyramids in Egypt show wear and tear after more than 4000 years being abused by sand and wind storms.

Latent Defect

Cases that provide coverage despite an exclusion for latent defects fall generally within two categories. The court determines either that:

    the defect could have been discovered
    through appropriate testing and it is
    therefore, not latent; or the loss resulted
    from a contributory covered risk.
Where defective construction, design, or fabrication of property results in the property’s failure or deterioration before its normal life, and the defect is not apparent upon reasonable inspection but only after a post-failure examination by an expert, then the resulting loss is caused by a “latent defect.”

ZALMA OPINION

It is essential that every property insurance claims professional must understand what comprises wear and tear and what is needed to prove the existence of an excluded inherent vice. The adjuster with such knowledge and the assistance and counsel of a competent and knowledgeable insurance coverage lawyer.

Adapted and excerpted from my book, Zalma on Insurance Claims Part 104 Third Edition Available as a Kindle Book and paperback from amazon.com.