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This is a FB post by the owner of Little Apple Brewery in Manhattan KS yesterday, sorry it's kind of long.
So, here we are, yet another day of diminishing prospects and frustration. The SBA Disaster Loan application site was down all day. It figures, probably crashed under the weight of hundred of thousands of users trying to access. Last night, I spent two hours getting two pages done, the site is clunky and inefficient. Very disappointing. I’ll try again tomorrow.
I don’t know how many of you saw the Tucker Carlson show last night on Fox. Disclaimer: I am not a Fox watcher or follower of any of their personalities. But, in the interest of providing salient information for restaurant owners, there was a segment featuring Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller, two of the most pre-eminent chefs and restaurant owners in the country. They voiced a concern and subsequent solution for many restaurant owners, one that I have been lobbying my federally elected representatives for nearly every day over the past two weeks.
The issue is Business Interruption/Income insurance, and the fact that insurance companies across the country are blanketly denying these claims. There are two issues here: virtually all policies exclude ‘viruses’: and conditioning claims under Civil Authority (mandatory governmental closings) clauses with ‘physical damages’. I ask you, who knew? Who reads the fine print of these 150-page policies? And who among us anticipated the situation we find ourselves in?
The solution offered by Puck and Keller is identical to the one I have been futilely pleading my elected representatives to pursue; have the Federal government force insurance companies to honor these claims and then back the payment of benefits with funding and subsidies. This is a simple approach to a growing nightmare amongst restaurant owners.
Consider the application and documentation process required to qualify for federal assistance. It is a formidable endeavor for a small business owner who may not have the resources available to complete the application for a favorable result. And then, the backlog of submissions, the understaffed federal agencies, the wait for response and potentially additional qualifying corroboration. Many will not survive the process, the clock is moving fast. Decisions need to be made tomorrow.
A more desirable avenue for relief and restoration lies in the insurance industry, we all know our agent. A simple phone call, a review of plummeting sales, file a claim, have an adjustor review it, check in the mail. That is how this should work, not the mountain of red tape and bureaucracy we are seeing. Think of this, when the president of the country and the director of the CDC stand in front of the American people and say “Don’t go to restaurants”, that is the death knell, the order for mandatory closure. Business owners should have protection as provided for in their policies regardless of fine print language!
So a little advice if you have B/I insurance, and this may be remedial for some of you, read your policy, check with your agent to see if your carrier has issued a position statement, if so file a claim even if your agent discourages it. At the same time contact your State insurance commission and file a complaint against your carrier. Cover your bases, show due diligence.
If you are in the restaurant industry and looking for marching orders, here they are. Every day, first thing, write your federally elected representatives, both senators and your congressman. That is essential. There needs to be a groundswell, and it needs to be sustained. I’m sure we all have a myriad of concerns about the effect of this crisis on our businesses, voice them. Emphasize the insurance issue. We need serious activation, if Puck and Keller can step it up, we can too.
Please share if you know somebody the industry.
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