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This is somewhat related to my other post regarding a commercial building undergoing renovation and his need for GL. By the way, this isn't a customer out of the blue. I insured his contracting business before he went back into teaching. I also insure his personal lines. He was going to open a yogurt shop but is considering something, well, different and...interesting. So this post may be a bit lengthy.

The building was built in 1877 and is located in a small historic town in CA. The owner (my insured) says there has been paranormal activity in the building that he has personally experienced. He says the town is known for this at several locations. He had an electrician there yesterday and he joked to the electrician that he doesn't like to go in the basement because it gives him the creeps based on many prior manifestations. The electrician who had gone into the basement said he had experienced a tugging on his shirt as if the shirt was getting caught on something but there was nothing for it to get caught on. Then he saw a black shadow dart by the window grate at which point he started flailing and then darted upstairs. Other things have occurred. During the pouring of concrete a while back, some bones were uncovered. The coronor's dept and the local university had him halt construction to research the bones because they thought he might have uncovered an Indian burial site but they turned out to be bones of dogs but the history of the place does have someone committing suicide in the building.

In any event, he wrote a book related to this and he also was discussing it with a fairly famous paranormal psychologist (wasn't sure if I should name names here) and the idea is to set this place up with video cameras and allow guests to spend the night there, either for research purposes or just for people who want to see if they will experience a paranormal event.

So I'm sure I can put all this on an Acord and send it out to underwriters but I just wanted to get your thoughts on how you think this should be classified as well as any unusual exposures and because I thought it would be fun to share.

I nominate this as the "most original submission of the year".

If he was running it as an attraction for short duration...then perhaps some type of an event policy.

Will be interesting to see the comments on this posting...

pita3333 wrote:I nominate this as the "most original submission of the year".

If he was running it as an attraction for short duration...then perhaps some type of an event policy.

Will be interesting to see the comments on this posting...

I think his intent would be to have it available at any time for short term rental.

I actually told him that! I said this has got to be the most interesting insurance request I've ever had.

Is there a class for the Psyhic Readers that you see all over the place? I'd think that is where they'd class at least part of the GL. Of course, there would have to be many different exclusions, not the least of which would be some sort of professional liability endorsement stating that a failure of a ghost to appear did not create a liability in the insured's part. Then again, the fright given by the appearance of a ghost would not be covered in case of stress or PTSD claims as well. (This is all silly stuff... but great fun!):lol:

My most unusual risk was about 30 years ago. I had a Doctor in a small country town in TN who raised prized Herford cows and bulls. His son was the farmer and carried bull semen around in his truck in an LPG sized tank filled with liquid Nitrogen. It looked very similar to the tank that you may have under your gas grill today.

He collected it himself and said this was the essence of his herd that he had been developing for the prior fifteen years and wanted $50,000 or so of insurance in case it got broke open in a wreck and the semen was spoiled. We wrote a Bolier and Machinery policy on it as it bounced across the meadows in the back of his pickup truck. Never did have a claim. Now that is an unusual submission!