Correcting Survey Items for Insurance

[Passages]

After a survey, you'll get a list of deficiencies. Some significant (Seacock cracked & and should be replaced) some cosmetic (bridge cushions cracked & should be replaced)

Insurance wants a comittment that all survey items will be corrected..

On a 25 year old boat there are plenty of items that are tired but have no impact on the seaworthyness of the boat.

What's the best way to handle this:

-Instruct surveyor to only put in writing items affecting seaworthyness
-Argue with insurance company on that really needs to be repaired
-Tell insurance everything is fixed even if some items will not be addressed until winter off season
-Suck it up, break out the checkbook for yard help and git 'er done

[Boatsb]

Depends on the type of insurance. For liability only the items that effect seaworthiness are all that should need to be addressed and the insurance company needs to be told that usually more than once. I would assume the items listed that do not effect the boats safety are secondary and should not be part of the insurance survey but may be on the owners survey.

[Captned]

If it was me, I would choose number three. But I would fix the safety / mechanical reccomendations and tell the insurance company the rest have been taken care of. (fix them at your leisure, cracked cushions are not going to sink a boat) Always fix the important ones in case something happens and a investigation takes place. Insurance agents sometimes dont know the difference between cracked gelcoat at the aft starboard cleat and a cracked fuel bowl on the port engines racor. They just assume all the reccomendations should be repaired.

M2C,

Captned
MBMM

[MikeP]

I have always followed item #3!

[drburke]

My surveyor specified 7 categories, starting with 1. USCG required, 2. Required for seaworthiness (before leaving dock), 3. ABYC recommended (not necessarily CG) and so on (probably fairly common).

I performed all work in the first three categories documenting with images and word descriptions, provided a detailed plan and time line for implementing the middle group, including purchasing items to be installed later (photos also), and then a longer term winter haul-out plan for the cosmetic items.

That 12 page word doc I sent to the insurance company along with a cover letter, which seemed to be sufficient.

DAN

[bobk]

I guess my insurance co was a bit more lenient. I fixed all the important stuff as fast as I could. They gave me a month or so. One item on the list was a bad hard top with cracks and delamination. I told the company I planned to have it repaired while I was in the keys the following winter and that was accepted. I would not lie. It can negate your insurance.

Bob

[SeaEric]

The surveyor that I use when I buy a boat gives me 2 lists with the survey. One has the mainstuff that he knows needs fixed for insurance and knows I will take care of immediately. The second is for my personal use and contains the smaller BS stuff that the insurance co. doesn't need to get bogged down in. There's nothing worse than having insurance PIA requirements for stupid stuff repairs that don't affect safety.

The problem comes with certifying that prepurchase repairs have been completed, if you have a loss. If their investigating surveyor can see stuff that was supposed to be repaired and isn't, you may have a problem.

[Angela]

My experience has been EVERY time that if it's in the survey, no matter if its in a column called "this crap don't matter", the insurer will still want it fixed. I actually had to sign an Affidavit that I had re-glued a piece of wallpaper that was peeling at the seam before my policy would be issued. WTF?

Now, if I see a survey with a bunch of cosmetic crap on it, I don't submit it, and I'm upfront with the surveyor that I do NOT want to see stuff like that. If it affects value, then adjust your value, but don't make me a refit list to describe what a brand new boat today would look like, and go talkin' about needing new carpet, curtain, bed coverings, wallpaper, and the fact that the color of the appliances are outdated, and how the boat could benefit from digital thermostats. If he can't do that, then he is free to leave now. I had one put to writing that all Hatteras were made wrong with respect to location of sea strainers and he wanted ALL of them relocated. He deemed every Hatteras to be uninsurable. We tried to fight it with the insurance company after consulting Hatteras and a marine architect/engineer. Insurer still wanted everything moved because the surveyor said so. This is the same surveyor that tried to convince me that one of the components of my air conditioning system was a battery charger until I asked him show me the meter and the big cables going in/out of it.

As for the wallpaper...it was in a room I was renovating and I had begun REMOVING IT!

You'll never win an argument with the insurance company no matter how trivial, or stupid, or unbelievable the issue is.

So, go with #3 if you gotta. If it's something major, you know you're going to fix it because you value your boat.

[StratPlan61]

I repaired everything with any influence on seaworthiness and initialed all other items. Then I added a statement clarifying all initialed items were only of cosmetic influence on the vessel, signed it and returned it to my insurance company - keeping a dated copy for myself. No response from them and no problems later when I filed a claim.

[Captned]

You havent forgot that guy, have you Ang? After reading that, someone might think you had a problem with that guy...

Captned
MBMM