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Last month during a renewal quote (I don't do them every year) I moved a pizza shop / restaurant with an apartment on the second floor. There was a bid from a local mutual company that was very, very competitive. Great I thought...I like riding in wearing that white hat. This shop has been with me since 1999 and has only been with 3 insurance companies. One renewal move was because an insurance company was non-renewing their restaurant book.

During the times the shop did change companies, after the inspection, the insurance companies did have one or two items they wanted addressed. The companies gave the insured time to make the requested changes. Ok...fine, the insured worked with them.

Now this recent very low premium inspects, says that of the 90 feet of sidewalk 6 feet isn't what they like and there is no emergency lighting. Instead of asking to have these items applied to the property....they cancel direct.

I know that those low premiums come at a price. In fact during a May renewal quote, for one of my better manufacturing clients, of the 3 new companies I presented, I warned, if you move to that lowest premium company you must remember there is that inspection. They've stayed with the same company for the past 5 or 6 years and well remember paying for an ISO report and the inspections, etc.

So tomorrow I get to deal with the italian pizza shop owner, that has a bit of a temper and really gets his broken english going when he loses it. Fun day tomorrow. Errrrrr!!!!

The thing is that I sent 10 pics of; the perimeter of the building, the inside, the outside, the fire extinguishers, the hood, etc. There were well enough pics for the UW to see the risk, so why the heck did they ever offer a quote.

Underwriters and Loss Control consultants seldom agree. This is just another prime example of internal company personnel not working together to underwrite properly. I would ask this question to your underwriter. This "mutual" just lost another potential source for income, especially since you will probably never use them again.

Today I asked where they would want the emergency lighting. They could not give an answer because they didn't know where they wanted the emergency lighting.

Elizabeth B wrote:Underwriters and Loss Control consultants seldom agree. This is just another prime example of internal company personnel not working together to underwrite properly. I would ask this question to your underwriter. This "mutual" just lost another potential source for income, especially since you will probably never use them again.

This happens numerous times. In many cases the inspector has no idea of business operations. They may recommend doing things that make no sense from a safety standpoint, are redundant, maybe impossible to do, or just plain stupid.

This is when practical business experience, if you have it, helps tremendously. Talk to your Underwriter, hell send him pictures of the busines if you have to. If you have an understanding of this business and have personally inspected it yourself you should have no trouble in getting this policy reinstated. Assuming you can figure out what exactly this inspector in advising.

I always send pics. I can't talk with UW's becuase I broker the stuff.

mike40829 wrote:This happens numerous times. In many cases the inspector has no idea of business operations. They may recommend doing things that make no sense from a safety standpoint, are redundant, maybe impossible to do, or just plain stupid.

This is when practical business experience, if you have it, helps tremendously. Talk to your Underwriter, hell send him pictures of the busines if you have to. If you have an understanding of this business and have personally inspected it yourself you should have no trouble in getting this policy reinstated. Assuming you can figure out what exactly this inspector in advising.