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Every policy holder should insure that their repairs and repair costs are
legitimate. I have always done so and have been treated well as a result. I
once found fraud in an automobile repair and contacted USAA. I had to insist
that they were paying new part prices for junkyard parts. It was a hard
sell. Finally, their investigation corroborated mine and their Norfolk
adjuster got adjusted.
Many years ago Annapolis went through a Summer with regular and severe
lightning storms. A nearby strike knocked-out all electronics on my boat. I
had an excellent surveyor and I decided that I would manage the project and
took a week off from work. I obtained all replacements at discount and
passed those savings on to the insurance company. I supervised the work of 3
subcontractors and performed some mechanical work myself. I used this
disaster to upgrade some items like my alternator and did not embed these
upgrade costs in the loss. Well, goody for me. I enjoyed the work. But, I
saved the insurance company money and got the repairs done to my standards.
I lived near the boat and had a cooperative employer. But, if you want to
keep policy costs down, you have to take an interest. There is a good reason
why many owners cannot provide this level of oversight, but there is no
reason why the owner cannot select a reputable business to do the repair.
There is no reason to desert a boat before a storm without taking reasonable
steps to protect it or hire someone else to do it. Purchasing insurance is
not absolution for the desertion of your responsibilities. The excessive
costs assumed by that NY boater's insurance company are insignificant to the
company's overall profitability and they placed their emphasis in the right
place - Florida. But, multiply this overpayment by many claims and you are
soon talking about real money. At the least, when a company examines its
average losses by area and discovers that downstate NY repairs are more
costly than upstate repairs and still more expensive than Ohio repairs,
adjusted for regional cost of living, you may have to excuse the company
when they are more suspicious of claims in one area over another. As a
former New Yorker, I am just using the example offered to sound off on the
shirking of responsibility by some owners. I assure you, a boat owner can be
taken advantage of anywhere, but try to remember that when its an insurance
loss, we all are being taken advantage of.
Ron Rogers
Willard 40 AIRBORNE
Lying Annapolis
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