Your Work Exclusion Inquiry

December 7, 2015

Our policyholder was hired to re-stain an existing wood fence. He power washed the fence with water only, then sprayed on the first of two coats of stain. The first coat of stain did not dry, so the planned second coat was not applied. Since the stain has never dried and the situation cannot be remedied, the fence must now be replaced.

Our question is whether this would be considered an operations or completed operations claim and whether the “your work” exclusion would apply if this falls under completed operations.

Ohio Subscriber

This sounds like it could be a completed operations work, but it depends on the facts of the incident. Did the insured not apply the second coat because he thought the job was finished or was he just delaying putting on the second coat? If he thought the job was finished, this is a completed ops; if he was just waiting for the first coat to dry and the damage occurred then before he continued his work, this is not a completed ops.

If this is a completed ops situation, the damage to your work exclusion is not applicable. This exclusion applies to damage to the insured's work and not to damage to property that the insured's work caused. In other words, if the paint job was not done right and the insured had to do it over again, the exclusion would apply. If the paint job damaged another's property, the exclusion would not apply.

If this is not a completed ops, consider exclusions j5 and j6 in the standard CGL form. Based on your description of the incident, these exclusions would apply.

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