Wisconsin property owners and their advocates need to be thoughtful when calculating deadlines for pursuing an insurance claim. Most Wisconsin property insurance policies are constructed to be all-peril policies whereby there is one deadline to pursue all claims in court. Most means most, not all. Smart property owners and their advocates review the policy to make sure they know all the deadlines, including the deadline to file in court which lawyers refer to as the statute limitations.
Insurance companies must write policies that conform, in substance if not in form, to language mandated by the Wisconsin Department of Insurance. The Department of Insurance has created a form to use as a guide. That form states the statute limitations can be a short as one year:
(p) Suit. No suit or action on this policy for the recovery of any claim shall be sustainable in any court of law or equity unless all the requirements of this policy shall have been complied with, and unless commenced within 12 months next after inception of the loss.
Wis. Admin. Code Ins. 6.76. While insurance companies may not go below 12 months, they can and often do go above 12 months and extent the time-period to 24 months. Two years is a common deadline nationally for several reasons, not the least of which being winter. Winter weather stalls insurance claim investigation and adjustment, thus 12 months is a very short window to adjust a claim and resolve differences with a property owner.
If a policy contains a one-year deadline the property owner is in a bind. Property owners and their advocates need to be thoughtful in what to do. First, they should move the claim forward as fast as possible. Second, they should document any delays by the insurance company. Third, and perhaps most important, two months before expiration of the statute of limitations the property owner needs a game plan. That game plan should include asking the insurer to toll the statute of limitations pending the outcome of adjustments and repairs.
Tolling a lawsuit means entering into an agreement (contract) whereby the insurance company agrees to extend the period of limitations in return for avoiding a lawsuit. They are enforceable in court. Many, but not all, insurance companies facing the prospect of litigation will indeed extend the period of limitations.
Even if an insurance company says “no” to such a request, the request is worthwhile. If the insurer says “no” then the follow-up is to ask why. If the insurance company has consistently slowed the claim, or winter weather has been severe and made adjustment and repairs impossible within the deadlines to file suit, the insurer ought to have a good reason for not tolling the statute of limitations. In many scenarios, where the insurer says “no” is acting to defeat a valid claim unjustly, i.e. after it has failed to take action on the claim. In that instance, refusal to grant an extension is part of a larger effort to denying the claim without saying so.
Should you have any questions about how the statute limitations operates in Wisconsin do not hesitate to email me at: ed@beckmannlawfirm.com.