Opinion: We need to unify against insurance companies that won’t pay out – Imbibe

Despite paying 300,000 in insurance per annum, Tatiana Fokina, CEO of Hide restaurant and Hedonism Wines finds her insurer of eight years unwilling to pay out over coronavirus. She tells Imbibe why hospitality businesses like hers shouldnt give up

Do you want to ask questions or shall I just rant? asks Fokina when we speak about her experience claiming insurance following the closure of Mayfair's Hide due to lockdown.

Having paid 300,000 a year in insurance to the same insurer over eight years, and having never had to claim during that time, we never doubted wed be covered, she says.

That certainty has been shaken since she first contacted her insurers, whom she is declining to name for now, on 17 March.

We said, Look its obvious we are going to be closed imminently and feel there will be a claim for business interruption. It took until 24 April to get any kind of response from them. I just find this appalling.

During that time, official advice was changing all the time, things were very uncertain and we were trying to work out what we were going to do, above all else, for our 200 staff bearing in mind the furlough scheme at this point wasnt in place. Could we keep any of them on? What were the resources we had? To be kept in limbo for so long was terrible.

Having chased on several occasions, once the claim had been denied on 24 April, the decision was taken to instruct lawyers to pursue the case.

We all need to have a definitive answer on certain wording in certain policies, she says. The claim for Hide is around a clause concerning the actions of competent authorities, which essentially means the police closing you down due to an incident. The dispute here is whether that incident has to be local or not.

Id far rather be spending money on topping up furlough wages than legal bills.

I think hospitality needs to speak with a unified voice on this and its important to share information as well, so wed be happy to share learnings from our experience and any details. I know theres a larger group of operators who are looking at taking joint action on this. Wed already instructed our lawyers before that all happened so are continuing down this path at the moment, though I dont rule out joining them in the future.

What would really help operators like Fokina, of course, would be for the government to put pressure on insurers to pay out. That would result in less pressure on the furlough scheme and far more job security for thousands of workers, Fokina points out.

For now she is working on the assumption there will be no pay out. As we also have Hedonism Wines, which has been able to continue to operate, we are in a far better position than most others. Without that the future for us would look far more glum but Id far rather be spending money on topping up furlough wages than legal bills.

In any event, Hides policy is up for renewal in a few months and Fokina says she will almost certainly be looking for a new insurer.

It will be very interesting when this is all over, as people will be looking at how insurance companies reacted during this crisis and how they treated their customers. That will be a defining factor in which companies people choose to go with in the future.

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Opinion: We need to unify against insurance companies that won't pay out - Imbibe