Subcontractor Fire, "Your Work," and the Additional Insured Tender

Trigger is the damage, not the negligence. On an occurrence form, coverage is triggered by bodily injury or property damage that takes place during the policy period. The defective splice was installed during construction, but the property damage occurred when the fire burned - so the policy in force at the fire date responds.

Watch the insurer's argument that damage was already in progress: if the box had been arcing and charring for months before the policy incepted, the insurer may contend property damage began earlier. Here the only damage is the fire itself, which makes the trigger clean.

One occurrence. A single cause - the defective splice - produced all the damage, even though there are two claimants and two parcels. The $10,000 deductible therefore applies once, not once per claimant, and it is owed by the named insured, Northgate.

Fire is an accidental occurrence and no exclusion (expected or intended, contractual, etc.) defeats it. Because the work was complete and the home turned over, the claim falls in the products-completed operations hazard, which matters for the aggregate question raised below.

Garage - covered. It is property damage to property other than the insured's product or work, physically injured by a covered occurrence, and none of the property exclusions reach it (Northgate was not performing operations on that garage).

Kitchen - covered, but with a carve-out. This is the exclusion that trips people up:

• Exclusion l. (Damage to Your Work) bars property damage to "your work" included in the products-completed operations hazard. Northgate built the house, so the house is its work - on its face the exclusion bites.
• But the exception restores coverage where the work out of which the damage arose was performed on the insured's behalf by a subcontractor. Vance did the electrical work. The exception applies and the $450,000 kitchen fire damage is covered.

Still excluded: the cost to repair or replace the defective junction box and the improper splicing itself, under the "particular part of the property" exclusion - that is the cost of making good faulty workmanship, not damage to other property. Northgate's own framing was not a cause, so no additional exclusion argument exists against Northgate's work.

Total covered damages: $750,000.

Limits. $750,000 is within the $1 million each-occurrence limit, so the occurrence limit - not the aggregates - caps the payment. Defense costs are in addition to limits under the ISO form and do not erode the $1 million. Track the aggregate correctly: this claim sits in the products-completed operations aggregate ($2 million), not the $2 million general aggregate. Misfiling it can cause a wrongful aggregate exhaustion dispute later.

Additional insured tender - do not assume it holds.

• A blanket additional insured endorsement typically grants status only where required by a written contract, and commonly limits coverage to liability caused by Northgate's ongoing operations. Completed operations is frequently excluded unless the endorsement says otherwise.
• Read the endorsement, not the certificate of insurance. A certificate is evidence of insurance, not a grant of coverage, and many certificates promise completed-operations AI status the policy does not deliver.
• If AI status does attach, the endorsement's terms govern the order of payment - commonly the GC's policy is primary and non-contributory where the subcontract required it, but only if the endorsement says so.
• The homeowners' own negligence or supervening acts are not covered by AI status; and the $10,000 deductible remains Northgate's obligation, not the additional insured's.

Because Vance's work caused the loss, the stronger tender is to Vance Electric's own CGL as an AI of Northgate - pursue both, in writing, before the applicable notice deadlines.