The neighbor of our insured had new windows installed within the last few years that have low-e glass. The insured recently noticed that a section of the vinyl siding on the rear of his home was buckled. We had an engineer go out for an inspection to determine the cause of the damage to the siding. He determined that the reflection of the sun off the low-e glass had temperatures as high as 180 degrees reflecting on this section of the siding where there is no shade. This ultimately caused the damage. Could we deny this claim based on the wear and tear or inherent vice exclusion? We write the HO3 (4/91) edition.

Connecticut Subscriber

No, this is not "wear and tear" or "inherent vice." This loss can be directly attributed to an outside agency; i.e., the heat from the windows. The siding didn't wear out over time, which would be excluded. Inherent vice means that there would be a characteristic within the siding that caused it to deteriorate or fail, but the outside force of the windows' heat production was what led to the buckling. No other exclusion applies, so the loss is covered.