NEED INSURANCE INFO

[ThePoetSuede]

I am in the middle of a contract agreement on 1800 sq ft in NY. I am bringing in the contractor to review the space then I am moving forward.

I need some guidance on "Who" I can contact, "What" I should be looking for (in plain english please) and "What" I may be looking at in terms of insurance cost.

I have seen some posts in the past about the difficulties so any direction will be appreciated.

Figure 20 washers 20 dryers, a couple of vending machines, leased space, operating hours 6am-9pm.

[azkid]

All I can tell you is that I have my insurance through CLA and it has saved me quite a bit of money over the few other local carriers I contacted. I suggest you contact them.

As they say in legal, your results may vary.

[Jefflange]

I have found local carriers as competitive as CLA and more responsive. The customer service at CLA Insurance I have found to be very poor.

[petefritz]

If you are in NY than CLA may be a consideration They dropped me after 10 years, with any claim, becuase of my location,,, Florida. If you live in Florida don;t bother joining CLa for insurance

[BrianWallace]

Hi everyone. It's good to be back on the board. My name is Brian Wallace, and I serve as executive director of Coin Laundry Association and president of the CLA Insurance program. I think I have some information that may help this discussion.

First, to answer TPS's question, certainly every coin laundry needs a basic BOP (Business Owners Policy) which covers the business personal property or "contents" of the store including equipment, customers goods, money and securities, etc. Those of you who own the building will also cover the value of building via the BOP as well. The BOP also covers the all-important Liability portion which covers "slips, trips, and falls", as well as other accidents that may occur in the store. If you have attendants, you'll want to secure workers' compensation, as well. There are many other coverages that you may wish to get along with the BOP: umbrella, hired auto, etc. Chat with your agent to make sure you have all the required and desired coverages. Most of the time, your premium is determined by the dollar value of the property and/or building you are insuring; the store sales volume; your geographic location; the construction type of the building, your past loss experience; the loss experience of the class of business (self-service laundry) and other underwriting criteria selected by your insurance carrier.

The state of the insurance industry as a whole is tough when it comes to the laundry industry. Unfortunately, most carriers are viewing our industry as an "undesirable" risk or at least one that they are not actively pursuing. The main problem relates to the loss experience and the cost of paying those claims for our industry.

The entire insurance industry is taking a very tough stance on: coastal areas (Florida and any property risks elsewhere within 5 miles of the water); the five boroughs of New York City; unattended businesses; 24-hour businesses; and workers' compensation coverage in Florida, California, and New York.

Obviously, many of the restrictions mentioned above apply to some of our insureds and members. We are able to cover some of those exposures now, and are working very hard to identify markets willing to work with us to cover the remainder.

This is an oversimplification, but laundries that are fully-attended, not 24-hour, not in NYC, Florida, or other coastal areas are often seeing their insurance rates level-off or even go down. Others will probably see a continuation of premium increases and/or difficulty finding coverage.

PeteFritz, your non-renewal is a result of geographic restrictions. In other words, we could not find a national carrier with coverage available in your area. Your good loss history will certainly help when dealing with regional carriers with capacity in Florida. We have many customers in Florida and we are trying to maintain coverage for as many as possible.

We at CLA Insurance have every motivation to find competitive insurance for each and every member. This process continues with an emphasis on public relations to the insurance industry- an effort to put our best foot forward and educate them about the real risks involved with our industry. In the past two weeks, I have personally met with executives with both Safeco and Hartford to talk about the quality stores associated with our program.

We are also looking into alternatives, including non-admitted carriers to address the so-called "higher risk" categories such as Florida, NYC, unattended and 24-hour.

The best advice continues to be "shop around". We hope that you will seek a competitive quote from CLA while you consider all the alternatives. We have 17 years experience finding coverage for coin laundries in good insurance markets and in bad. CLA Insurance continues to insure just under 60% of CLA members. Our program continues to welcome hundreds of new insureds each year.. As always, feel free to ask questions by calling me at 800-570-5629 or emailing me at brian@coinlaundry.org. Brian.

[Kari]

Florida, a high risk area. What is that all about!? My store is located in central Florida and we got pretty good rates from Penn Charter.

[petefritz]

Thanks Brian, I did shop around after CLA ditched me after about 10 years. Firemans's Fund picked up my mat, they had 2 others insured, which I tried to insure with CLA and was given very high quotes years ago. and yes, the mat you ditched was within 1 mile of water. My question is this; CLA never provided flood or wind (hurricane) insurance, just fire and liablility. How did my mat become uninsurable? I never looked for insurance against perils, acts of god. What a racket, just insure attended mats in Nebraska or Michigan, not like you cherry pick. It is almost discrimination

[BrianWallace]

Hi Pete: It is important to remember that, as an agency, we do not control the underwriting (i.e. which exposures are insurable and which are not). If there are exposures that we can't cover such as coastal Florida, it is a reflection of the overall insurance market - in other words, none of the carriers that we work with are offering coverage in those areas. Obviously, we would like to cover each and every store under the sun, thereby retaining/recruiting a member and earning a commission. We are working with all carriers to persuade them to cover the most coin laundry risks possible.

Your policy with us did cover windstorm, perils, and acts of god exposures. Flood coverage is not part of a basic BOP product, and always needs to be purchased separately through an excess lines carrier or a state pool.

I also wanted to mention that we have had several meetings with Fireman's Fund over the past couple of months, and they have declined to take on our coin laundry program. They indicated that their company appetite is to not cover coin laundries, so I am glad and surprised you were able to find a Fireman's Fund policy through a local agent.

Rest assured, we are making every possible opportunity available to our insureds. We are not discriminating against any particular area or type of exposure - we're merely reflecting what's readily available in the marketplace. As an agency, we have not cherry-picked accounts - Florida constitutes our largest book of business. We have covered hundreds and hundreds of stores in Florida since 1988. Thanks for listening and I hope that more coverage becomes available to us for coastal Florida in the near future. BW

[petefritz]

I don't quite get it. here in Florida we have 3 insurance now we have to buy, fire/liability, windstorm, and flood, if in a flood zone, the same as if you live near the Mississippi river in Missouri. The wind storm is run by the state, the flood by the US government. What risk does a insurance company have other than fire/liability? Still sounds like CLA has not really put its insurance lines together for Florida. Maybe it is not a racket, maybe it is just poor agency service. Assuming your agency does not understand this, you could write basic BOP excluding wind Perl, like every other insurance agency does. Give JUA a call, now Citizens I guess. Maybe your agency needs to work a little harder. There are many mats in coastal zones that have insurance now, because their agents work to find coverage. CLA taking an easy to insure road is really a blow to your organization. This is where CLA should excel, in the hard to get areas, supposedly because you are CLA.

[mrcoinop]

I completely agree it is the agent that makes the difference if you get the good rates they always have to battle with the underwritters to make the deal happen. your agent is just giving up and does not want to work for your business. they are going for the easy customers and giving up on the more difficult ones.

[Fairmont]

Have you bound coverage on your insurance yet?

[ThePoetSuede]

No I have not but I saw your response regarding the insurance company in Brooklyn. I am currently in the process of determining my startup cost and applying for a loan. i have a confirmation from the landlords regarding our mutual interest and they have provided me with a basic contract indicating thier intentions for me to lease the space for a set amount of money.

I will call the insurer to get some information and proceed to get a second quote for comparison. Much thanks in your response. If you are affiliated with that insurance company I'll be more than happy to contact you.

The Poet Suede

[Fairmont]

Poet Suede,

Glad to help! This brokerage has a great laundromat program. When do you plan on opening?