Commercial property owners filing two claims from back-to-back hurricanes should review what their policies cover, how deductibles and limits might apply, and deadlines by which hurricane damage must be reported to insurers.

Back-to-back hurricanes are not unusual, but Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which struck the Gulf Coast of Florida just two weeks apart, highlight the importance of mitigating property damage and documenting losses for each storm, experts say.

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How to allocate property damage between two storms is a key issue in connection with back-to-back hurricanes, said Dennis Artese, a shareholder in the New York office of Anderson Kill P.C.

“Oftentimes, there’s just not enough time between the two events to fully document the first loss, so it may not be crystal clear exactly how much additional damage was caused by the second event,” Mr. Artese said.

As long as policy limits are sufficient to cover all the damage, it may not matter, but “where per occurrence limits are insufficient, the policyholder is wise to try to trigger another occurrence with additional damage to then trigger another set of per occurrence limits,” he said.

In cases where there is a substantial named storm deductible, insurers may seek to allocate the additional damage to a second storm and allege that the additional damage falls within the second storm’s deductible, Mr. Artese said.

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