Matching is required in Kentucky. A Kentucky regulation requires insurance coverage corporations to “change all objects within the space in order to adapt to a fairly uniform look.”¹ The issue for policyholders is that the Kentucky federal courts is not going to implement the regulation.

What Is the Matching Regulation for Shingles in Kentucky?

State Insurance coverage Commissioner Sharon Clark lately posted an advisory opinion looking for to make clear matching legislation in Kentucky. It notes {that a} new roof have to be put in “if the shingles on one slant of a residential roof have to be changed as a consequence of injury lined by an relevant property insurance coverage coverage” and there aren’t any matching shingles that might “render the slant in query fairly uniform to the rest of the roof.”

The bulletin goes on to state that if particular person shingles will be changed with others of the identical make and mannequin, then a full roof alternative isn’t wanted even when the shingles could differ in colour as a consequence of age.

Is Kentucky a Line of Sight State?

Matching legal guidelines require insurance coverage corporations to pay for comparable supplies when objects are misplaced or broken and actual alternative parts can’t be discovered. Many states use a “line of sight” rule, holding that every part inside a viewers line of sight should have a uniform look. Nonetheless, Kentucky rules don’t use this commonplace, as we see within the bulletin quoted above.

Matching Regulation in Kentucky Federal Court docket: Nationwide Case Examine

A Kentucky case involving hailstorm injury ended up in federal courtroom with a dispute about whether or not matching might be thought of by an appraisal panel.² The courtroom famous the dispute between the events:

Nationwide maintains Gardiner is demanding it change “undamaged shingles to ‘match’ changed shingles and smooth metals which can be lined below the Coverage” which might lead to “a windfall that [Gardiner] didn’t cut price for below the Coverage and protection for which it didn’t pay a premium.” Gardiner contends that each Kentucky legislation and the Coverage require Nationwide to match the whole roof with any shingles changed throughout repairs to the roof vents.

Personally, I’d have challenged Nationwide’s lawyer concerning the alleged windfall as a result of Kentucky clearly has a regulation stopping what Nationwide is doing. Certainly, if the Kentucky Division of Insurance coverage took discover that Nationwide is conducting itself on this method and fined the insurer for this wrongful conduct, no person ought to be shocked.

Court docket Findings

Nonetheless, the Kentucky federal courtroom discovered there was no non-public proper of motion and in some way parlayed that authorized reasoning right into a ruling that insurance coverage corporations are free to violate Kentucky insurance coverage rules.

Not too long ago this Court docket held this ‘regulation can’t be enforced in a non-public motion.’ Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Ins. Co. v. C.F.L.P. 1, LLC, No. 3:14-CV-40-DJH-DW, 2015 WL 5793951, (W.D. Ky. Sept. 30, 2015); see additionally Superior Mech. Servs., Inc. v. AutoOwners Ins. Co., No. 3:14-CV-388-DJH-CHL, 2017 WL 3381366, at *8 (W.D. Ky. Aug. 4, 2017) (‘[T]his Court docket and its sister district have repeatedly held, [the regulation] is inapplicable in non-public litigation . . . .’… As this Court docket defined in Woods Residences, LLC v. U.S. Hearth Insurance coverage Co., No. 3:11-CV-00041-H, 2013 WL 3929706 (W.D. Ky. July 29, 2013):

The regulation Plaintiffs cite clearly supplies that ‘[a] violation of this administrative regulation shall be discovered solely by the manager director. This administrative regulation shall not create or suggest a non-public reason for motion for violation of this administrative regulation.’…As this Court docket has discovered ‘[t]he plain language of this regulation states that it neither creates nor implies a non-public reason for motion for an alleged violation.’ Brantley v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., 2012 WL 4959528 (W.D. Ky. Oct. 12, 2012); Accordingly, plaintiffs can not sue below this regulation.

Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Insurance coverage Co., nevertheless, was a declaratory judgment motion introduced by the insurance coverage firm to nominate an umpire. Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Ins. Co., 2015 WL 5793951…The policyholder introduced a counterclaim for the quantity of loss sought by its appraiser primarily based on Kentucky’s ‘matching legislation’, however in the end the events ‘filed competing briefs concerning . . . particularly, whether or not the chosen umpire ought to be instructed that beauty matching of the siding is required . . . .’ Id. at *1-2. Thus, squarely earlier than the Court docket was the applicability of this regulation to the insured’s coverage that, like Gardiner’s, required replacements ‘with different property of like type and high quality’. Id. at *3. The Court docket held that Part 9 doesn’t ‘set up that ‘[m]atching is required by Kentucky legislation . . . .’ ‘ Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Ins. Co., 2015 WL 5793951…see additionally Woods Residences, LLC, 2013 WL 3929706, at *2 (‘The regulation doesn’t assist Plaintiffs’ argument that Defendants are legally obligated to restore or change parts of the Property that weren’t broken . . .[,] as a result of the regulation imposes no such requirement . . . .’). Gardiner has not proffered any motive for the Court docket to depart from its prior rulings.

The Backside Line: Imposing Laws

Whereas I agree that the policyholder can not sue for a non-public dangerous religion reason for motion for damages, that doesn’t imply the insurer’s contract and efficiency obligations can escape Kentucky regulatory legislation. Your complete function of the legislation is to forestall Nationwide from not matching the undamaged and broken parts of the constructing. Whereas I perceive the courtroom’s logic, it’s merely flawed. It ignores what Kentucky requires Nationwide to do.

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Thought For The Day

Illogical thinkers throw names and slurs round as a result of they haven’t any arguments with which to rebut their opponents. Rational individuals should maintain hammering their factors house.
—Ben Carson
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¹ 806 KAR 12:095 § 9(1)(b).
² Nationwide Gen. Ins. Co. v. 1616 Gardiner Lane, Inc., No. 3:20-cv-00651(W.D. Ky. June 16, 2021).