Welcome to Part 2 of Ken’s incredible and complicated insurance claim. You can catch up on Part 1 here.
The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges, as the world grappled with the sudden onset of a global pandemic. For Ken, a small business owner in the retail sector, March of that year marked the beginning of an uphill battle for survival. As the uncertainties of the pandemic loomed large, Ken found himself coping not only with the threat to public health but also with the daunting question of how his business would weather the storm.
The Pandemic Hits!
Ken, like many retail business owners was wondering how he was going to survive the pandemic. In fact, he was one of the first to put a call in to us.
The pandemic was an unusual time for us. What ensued was a flurry of activity on our end — a period unlike any other in our history. Every client, whether they had got in contact or not, received a call from us with a reassuring voice on the other end of the line. In the first month of the pandemic we spoke to every single one of our clients. It was a time of long days, late nights, and seven-day work weeks as we worked hard to make sense of the situation for each and every one of them.
We managed to explain to everyone what their position was and we expected Ken’s insurer to pay out. However, Ken’s insurer had other ideas and used the initial confusion over what a lock down mean’t to try and delay the payment.
They used all the delay tactics
When it became clear that a lockdown was a lockdown, imposed by a government or local authority, they then decided to use the court case issued by the Financial Conduct Authority as another excuse. It was an excuse they used to delay payment.
We kept in touch with Ken and he, like others, tried to diversify and pivot to keep his business going. Alas, Ken fell prey to his business not being able to successfully trade their way out of the pandemic. Cynics amongst us may say that insurers did this on purpose, i.e they caused herd liquidations.
They waited, they used the court case as an excuse. Seems like they were hoping that businesses would go bust by running out of money whilst waiting for the money they should have received from insurance companies. A cynic could say that every insurer does this and they do it a lot more often than they should.
There is supposed to be a law against it. For example, if an insurer is found guilty of paying late, they are supposed to pay interest on those payments. However, what insurers do is get people to sign agreements that say if the insurer gives you this money you can’t do anything else about it. By the time people get that agreement pushed under their nose they are absolutely desperate and will do anything to get the cash back into their business and will sign anything the insurer puts in front of them. So insurers get away with it.
Herd Liquidation
Back to herd liquidation. Ken’s business had been struggling and that’s another excuse insurers often use to try and avoid paying. However, Ken’s business hadn’t been closed down nor was it dormant, so there was somewhere for the claims settlement to be paid to. When we did tell Ken, he was shocked and delighted to hear that he was receiving thousands of pounds. Our Lisa had kept him up to date all the while, it was 3 years after the event and some insurers are still not paying to this day!
Don’t give up
Ken had moved beyond anger when the insurance company refused to pay. When they continually used the court case as a delaying tactic, Ken got frustrated, as everyone else did. In 2022 Ken was minded to give up. Our Lisa persuaded him not to, because we knew that insurers would have to pay out some time and all their excuses would expire at some point.
We kept going and advising Ken, and others, what was going on with the delays and what tactics insurers were using at any particular time.
As I said, he was so delighted with the settlement and he asked what he could do for us in return. I explained it was all part of the service, yet we would love him to comment on what he felt about our service and how we’d tried to look after him at the worst possible times in his business life. Which is why Ken produced this amazing testimonial.
Wrap Up
When we started working with Ken we realised his was one of a few businesses that had a risk of illness damaging their ability to generate profit, so we found a policy that covered loss of profit following illnesses. The Association of British Insurers were quick to say “we don’t cover pandemics” and they made that very public announcement.
What was really frustrating was that broker’s were shouting as loud as they could, saying “You might not cover pandemics, but you do cover contagious diseases, infectious illnesses, and more”. The press ignored us, our voices weren’t heard and insurers got away with it. But not in every case, as we made them pay. Now Solicitors are earning extraordinary amounts to ensure insurers pay out when the are liable, and taking these earnings out of compensation awarded to businesses. Which seems very, very wrong.
Top Tip
Now the pandemic has come and gone, insurers have made it abundantly clear they are not covering much relating to any pandemic, or any similar illness or disease ever, going forward. Or they will offer ridiculously limited cover if legionella, or something that actually causes damage to tangible property, visits your premises.
The government is supposed to be putting a back stop in place, to pay businesses if they are closed because of a pandemic.
So it is up to you to manage the risk of diseases on your premises, we can give advice on that.
It is a good idea to calculate what the real cost to your business would be if something like covid affected your business and stopped you trading. How much would you need to keep going?
If anything here resonates with you please get in contact.
