{"id":2564,"date":"2016-01-25T05:09:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T22:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2016-01-25T02:14:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T19:14:48","slug":"owners-of-dubai-high-rises-urged-to-check-insurance-after-the-address-downtown-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/owners-of-dubai-high-rises-urged-to-check-insurance-after-the-address-downtown-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners of Dubai high-rises urged to check insurance after The Address Downtown fire"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nDUBAI \/\/ Owners of high-rise homes in Dubai have been urged to examine their building insurance policies before an expected barrage of litigation over the New Year\u2019s Eve fire at The Address Downtown.As a result of the fire, authorities ordered checks on every building, amid suggestions that the aluminium composite panels that clad hundreds of towers are a fire risk.Even minor remedial fire-prevention work on aluminium-clad buildings would be expensive: the cost of replacing the cladding could be ruinous.
\nLawyers now predict a scramble among building owners, developers, construction contractors, designers and material manufacturers to avoid liability, with insurers eventually footing the bill.\u201cAll interim owners\u2019 associations need to dust off their insurance coverage and have a good look at it,\u201d said Michael Lunjevich, a partner at the law firm Hadef & Partners.\u201cOwners may not be aware of the insurance put in place for their building. There could be gaps that might allow insurers to dodge liability. Is this caused by faulty design, faulty materials, faulty installation or a structural defect? Each possibility has a different treatment under insurance, and should be investigated.
\n\u201cIf this issue is as big as people suspect, then everyone needs to pull out their contracts, whether that be the sale and purchase agreement, the construction contract or insurance contracts, and take legal advice.\u201d The legal fallout from the Address fire also illustrated the need for more clarity over the liability of building owners, and lawyers said more legislation may be required to settle the issue.
\nA law for jointly-owned properties in Dubai was enacted in 2007, creating freehold property rights for expatriates and requiring owners\u2019 associations to manage the maintenance and operation of their buildings.However, the associations have not yet been fully recognised as legal entities. They remain \u201cinterim\u201d bodies, which limits their ability to start legal proceedings or take collective action.\u201cBoth Rera and Land Department need to act to bring the Jointly-Owned Property Law into full effect,\u201d said Mr Lunjevich.
\n\u201cAlso, Dubai Municipality and civil defence need to act on projects under construction to ensure that if there is an issue this is not repeated.\u201dInsurers are also considering the implications of the Address fire for underwriting risk for high-rise buildings.Global insurance groups have taken a keen interest in building facade blazes after high-profile fires in Europe, the US and Asia in recent years. Groups such as Liberty Mutual, FM Global and Tokio Marine have funded research into facade fires.
\nUnlike many other cities, where panel-clad buildings may constitute only a small part of the building stock, most of Dubai\u2019s high-rise skyline was constructed in the decade before the 2008-2009 financial crisis, using this type of facade. Many of these buildings have aluminium cladding with flammable material in its core.Beyond the claims generated by the Address fire, insurers and reinsurers will now also be analysing the costs associated with the fire tests that will be conducted on buildings across the city, any remedial work that may be required as a result, and the retention of lawyers to advise owners\u2019 associations.
\n\u201cWe have received some claims notifications and are analysing the situation,\u201d said a spokesman for Zurich Insurance Group. \u201cIt\u2019s way too early to make any statements on the role of the cladding in this incident.\u201dIn the meantime, lawyers expected the fire to result in litigation. \u201cInsurers will probably bear the brunt if the insurance coverage is in place. A unit owner may sue a developer, who in turn sues the construction contractor, who sues the designer, who sues the material manufacturer and they all call on their insurers to pay up if they are found liable,\u201d said Mr Lunjevich.
\n\u201cDevelopers, consultants, contractors, manufacturers and insurers will all play a part in this. This is not a standard building fire \u2013 here we are talking about a fire that has highlighted problems with materials, and lots of it is possibly still in the market.\u201dscronin@thenational.aeFollow The National\u2019s Business section on Twitter
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\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Owners of Dubai high-rises urged to check insurance after The Address Downtown fire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DUBAI \/\/ Owners of high-rise homes in Dubai have been urged to examine their...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-Fm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":809,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/insurance-premiums-in-focus-after-the-address-downtown-dubai-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":2564,"position":0},"title":"Insurance premiums in focus after The Address Downtown Dubai fire","date":"January 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Insurers are set to review building premiums after the New Year\u2019s Eve blaze at The Address Downtown Dubai.The fire at the hotel was the latest in a string of building blazes in Dubai last year, including ones at The Torch Tower at Dubai Marina in February and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":708,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/most-dubai-towers-built-before-2012-have-non-fire-rated-exterior-panels\/","url_meta":{"origin":2564,"position":1},"title":"Most Dubai towers built before 2012 ‘have non fire-rated exterior panels’","date":"January 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r The companies that made and installed the exterior panels on The Address Downtown Dubai hotel say that most of the towers built in the city prior to 2012 used non-fire rated exterior panels.The disclosure comes as investigators probe the causes of the spectacular blaze which was beamed across\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43083,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/emaar-to-receive-dh1-22-billion-insurance-claim-on-address-downtown-hotel-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":2564,"position":2},"title":"Emaar to receive Dh1.22 billion insurance claim on Address Downtown hotel fire","date":"February 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Dubai developer Emaar Properties has agreed a billion dirham insurance claim with Orient Insurance over the dramatic fire at its Address Downtown hotel on New Year's Eve 2015. In a statement to the Dubai bourse this morning Emaar confirmed that it had agreed the Dh1.22 billion insurance claim with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4136,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/shaji-ul-mulk-the-man-the-facade-and-the-address-downtown-dubai-fire\/","url_meta":{"origin":2564,"position":3},"title":"Shaji Ul Mulk: the man, the facade and The Address Downtown Dubai fire","date":"February 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Shaji Ul Mulk is the man behind the facades of a thousand towers.The billionaire Indian businessman runs the world's biggest maker of aluminium panels found on skyscrapers worldwide.One of those was The Address Downtown Dubai, which on New Year's Eve took minutes to erupt in a spectacular ball\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58398,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/grenfell-tower-fire-disaster-in-london-could-never-happen-in-dubai-experts-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":2564,"position":4},"title":"Grenfell Tower fire disaster in London could never happen in Dubai, experts say","date":"June 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A tragedy such as the Grenfell Tower fire, which is estimated to have claimed 79 lives in London last week, could never happen in Dubai, panel manufacturers claim, following the introduction of new rules at the start of the year. 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But as high-rise building freehold owners and insurance experts become increasingly nervous about the cost implications of a government\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}