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Kinsale seeks ruling it owes no defense in Oregon townhome defect suit
Kinsale’s complaint says the underlying homeowners’ association case seeks $3.0 million for alleged water intrusion and related building-envelope damage.
An insurer is asking a federal court in Portland to declare it owes no duty to defend or indemnify its insured in an Oregon construction defect dispute involving a townhome development, according to Insurance Business.
Kinsale Insurance Company filed suit on August 7, 2026 against Timbers Siding Contractors, seeking a declaration that coverage does not apply to claims tied to siding work performed on a 31-unit project built around 2020. The dispute began when Ironcrest Estates Homeowners’ Association sued developer West Coast Home Solutions in December 2024, alleging actual repeated or continuous and substantial water intrusion, including areas where the intrusion purportedly compromised the buildings’ structural integrity.
Kinsale said West Coast later brought subcontractors into the case, and that its insured was pulled in through third-party claims tied to the subcontracted work. Kinsale’s filing points to its Commercial General Liability policy to Timbers, with a $1,000,000 each-occurrence limit and a $2,000,000 products-completed operations aggregate for the coverage period from August 5, 2019 to August 5, 2020.
The insurer argued that key policy exclusions control the outcome, including an exclusion that bars products-completed operations coverage for work on residential condominium or townhome projects or developments of any size. Kinsale also cited exclusions for prior work, faulty work by the contractor, and fungi or bacteria, and said it is defending under a reservation of rights while it pursues the court ruling.