Boat fire seaport inlet marina

[Capt. Debbie]

A friend had a boat down C&C Marina in Bayville. Sandy took it after winter layup(Drain plug out and bilge pumps w/o battery) so sunk on its trailer. Total loss. Agreed value $14,000. Then marina hit him up for $9800 for retrieval costs and another $1,000 for disposal costs. Insurance met coverage and walked after paying for lost boat $14,000. A year of litigate later he paid out of pocket to a marina. I helped negotiate it down to $4,000

Let us know how this turns out?

This could be a good lesson in what coverage does and does not cover.

Many marina have a hold harmless clause and you pay for yourself. That's why they require you have insurance to store on their property. If you have no insurance you have to sue everyone to get anything. very different form car insurance under no fault.

Who is your insurer?

Since this is not no fault, you pay your own way ( your insurer fixes you up) and you have to sue the other to recover the cost. If you do go after the "at fault" party and win then your insurance company wants their money back.

[Abrasion]

A few things(I do insurance for a living) I wanted to comment on fromreading this thread:

1: It doesn't matter how the fire started as long as you didn't start it. You should have your claim processed asap
2: On a stated limit policy, they will pay the stated limit or the repair, whichever is LESS
3: someone correctly pointed out that salvage is part of not in addition to your stated limit.
4: building on #3, you should consider filing 3 claims. A: your boat policy B: The marina's Liability policy C: Your Homeowner's policy.
I'd file A and B immediately. Wait on C until A&B clear a little. The marina's liability policy is important in case there is any out of pocket that you can't recover due things lost in the fire that insurance didn't cover. Your homeowners may cover your personal effects(clothing and fishing gear) since the boat was not in the water(read your policy to confirm).

I don't do personal lines insurance but insurance is insurance is insurance. If anyone needs help understanding terms in their policy, shoot me a pm.

[Striper80]

Originally Posted by Capt. Frank

A friend had a boat down C&C Marina in Bayville. Sandy took it after winter layup(Drain plug out and bilge pumps w/o battery) so sunk on its trailer. Total loss. Agreed value $14,000. Then marina hit him up for $9800 for retrieval costs and another $1,000 for disposal costs. Insurance met coverage and walked after paying for lost boat $14,000. A year of litigate later he paid out of pocket to a marina. I helped negotiate it down to $4,000

Let us know how this turns out?

This could be a good lesson in what coverage does and does not cover.

Many marina have a hold harmless clause and you pay for yourself. That's why they require you have insurance to store on their property. If you have no insurance you have to sue everyone to get anything. very different form car insurance under no fault.

Who is your insurer?

Since this is not no fault, you pay your own way ( your insurer fixes you up) and you have to sue the other to recover the cost. If you do go after the "at fault" party and win then your insurance company wants their money back.

Progressive paid for the "salvage" of my boat. The salvage was a set price per foot charged by the the towboat co. My boat needed to be untangled from the others and repositioned on the trailer. They gave me a separate check for the salvage.

[Capt. Debbie]

That's great!

Most people don't realize a boat policy is not pure value

Originally Posted by Striper80

Progressive paid for the "salvage" of my boat. The salvage was a set price per foot charged by the the towboat co. My boat needed to be untangled from the others and repositioned on the trailer. They gave me a separate check for the salvage.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up regarding the fire at Seaport Inlet Marina "SIM" earlier this year and the surprise boat owners who experienced damage or a complete loss were provided a week ago. As the saying goes, "buyer beware" or in this case customers beware. All boat owners effected by the fire were early on provided information pertaining to SIM's insurance carrier, claim number and contact information. Owners filed claims against their insurance and for any items not covered filed a claim against SIM's carrier.

Over the course of six weeks, owners were led to believe our claims were being reviewed and we'd hear back from SIM's carrier on a number of occasions. Promises were made and not kept. It was virtually impossible to reach anyone at SIM's insurance company for discussion and if you tried getting an answer from Seaport Inlet Marina themselves the standard reply was they're not involved and we had to call the insurance company directly. The entire process was set up for Seaport Inlet Marina to conveniently have plausible deniability and the insurance company to be completely unreachable.

About a week and a half ago, all owners with destroyed boats were told SIM's attorney was meeting with the insurance company to review the status of claims and to expect updates within 24 hours. Again a date that came and went with no response. The following Monday all owners involved received a notice from the attorney notifying us that a suit was filed with Seaport Inlet Marina as the plaintiff and all boat owners who incurred losses or had their boats destroyed in the fire as defendants requesting a "Declaratory Judgement". So Seaport and their insurance company while telling us they were reviewing our claims, preemptively took the information we provided and filed a suit against us to essentially dismiss our claims. All the time the owner of Seaport was telling his customers if there's anything he could do to facilitate our claims with the insurance company to let him know.

When accidents like this happen, there are those who take the high road and willingly accept responsibility for their actions. And then theirs Seaport Inlet Marina's of the world who destroy your boat in a fire caused by their own employee and subsequently file suit against you in an effort to avoid responsibility. Got to love the irony in that!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Well that sucks Tom....Once attorney's get involved everything changes

Gerry you said it! I understand with a situation of this magnitude and potential environmental concerns the marina getting an attorney involved. To me that's being prudent. BUT for Seaport Inlet Marina to willfully mislead their customers into believing claims would be considered while simultaneously filing a suit to have those claims dismissed is tragic. Wanted to share this with the site for anyone storing or having work performed on their boats, make sure you understand the small print on the contracts you sign. A few seemingly innocuous words shouldn't be overlooked especially when it deals with liability and loss language.

[hammer4reel]

will be curious to how this plays out.
as since SIM was PAID to store those said boats.
and it was one of their employees that caused the fire.
I would expect a court will rule against them AS well as make them pay your legal fees.