Hospitality Insurance Group Action (HIGA) is open to businesses which have been forced to close within the sector, including hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, nightclubs and leisure businesses, if their insurance company is silent or refusing to honour policies relating to business interruption due to this pandemic and the lockdown. Any collective claim by HIGA against the insurance industry is likely to run into tens of millions of pounds, notwithstanding often inadequate policy limits, such is the extent of members’ financial damage.

Mishcon de Reya is advising HIGA on the parameters of bringing a collective group action against a range of insurers. Mishcon has secured external funding to cover the policy review exercise and is working with Philip Edey QC, of Twenty Essex Chambers.

Sonia Campbell, Partner and Head of the Insurance Disputes Practice at Mishcon de Reya commented: "Hospitality sector businesses, large and small, have been particularly hard hit by the government-enforced closure during this pandemic and desperately need to mitigate their losses. In times of crisis they expect their insurance to respond. Yet I am hearing time and time again that insurers are either stone-walling, unfairly limiting or simply point-blank refusing to pay out under business interruption policies. This strikes us as something that is open to challenge. I look forward to assisting all members of HIGA in exploring the possibility of a group claim. There may well be some light at the end of this industry’s very dark tunnel."

There is no cost to any UK hospitality business to register with HIGA to have their existing business interruption insurance policy reviewed by Mishcon.

To express interest in joining HIGA, business owners should register their details at www.HIGAction.com so that a free-of-charge preliminary assessment can made of their insurance policy and specifically whether Covid-19 lockdown-related losses are covered within their business interruption clauses.