ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The Asheville Downtown Association hosted its third weekly meeting with small business owners in downtown Asheville. This meeting was punctuated by passionate remarks against fine print insurance practices.
The event was livestreamed by 828newsNOW and can be viewed in its entirety here.
The meeting began at 10 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 24 at Mojo Coworking in downtown Asheville, 81 Broadway St.
Among the speakers at the third livestream were N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein and N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, both of whom took questions from business owners after their remarks.
Katie Button was one business owner with a few burning questions.
Button owns Spanish restaurants Cúrate, 13 Biltmore Ave., and La Bodega, 32 S Lexington Ave. in downtown Asheville. Both businesses were shut down when Hurricane Helene swept across Western North Carolina nearly a month ago.
“We just started reopening Cúrate about a week ago because we’re paying for a limited amount of potable water to bypass the city water systems,” Button said. “But La Bodega has still been closed.”
Despite Cúrate’s gradual reopening, it may be too little, too late. Due to Helene and the fine print of her insurance, Button was left without a way to support her workers.
“We had 160 employees and we have laid off or furloughed the vast majority,” Button said.
There is a GoFundMe set up for La Bodega and Cúrate employees organized by Christina Howington-Gurjian, a server and server trainer at Cúrate. The goal is $50,000 and the fund has already raised $35,480.
The insurance piece of the disaster was a major reason Button was forced to lay off her staff.
“What we are finding in business income interruption insurance is that every policy is different, and there is all kinds of language buried under 300 pages,” Button said. “We’re relying on insurance with the intention of the fact that it will pay out when your business is interrupted. Not just for our businesses, but for our employees, because payroll is supposed to be funded.”
Instead, Button found that she had signed insurance documents with caveats that prevented insurance covering the things Cúrate and La Bodega needed after Hurricane Helene.
“What about better regulation of the fine print and intent of policies that we’re signing up for? I mean, we have business income interruption insurance, and actually a large payout amount,” Button asked during the Q&A session with Stein and Causey. “However, we are hearing all kinds of reasons for why it doesn’t pay out.”
Button’s remarks were received with loud applause from the room.
“What I was asking for in my main question was for the future,” Button said. “I get that we’re in this mess now, but for the future of business we need government regulation of how these policies are written and the intent of the policy. What can be excluded and what can’t.”
Causey heard Button’s concerns. He had advice for any business owners with similar frustrations over their insurance.
“It’s so important that people have an agent that they can talk with,” Causey said. “It’s real important for the people paying the premiums to know what’s covered and what’s not covered.”
Causey said that his office can help business owners understand what their insurance will cover in the wake of Helene, as well as negotiate with insurance companies as an intermediary.
“We listen to both sides, and we regulate,” Causey said.
Causey likened his role to an art appraiser evaluating a painting, something he in fact used to do.
“One time I had to go to a man’s house. He had a famous painting, and he wanted it appraised for insurance purposes,” Causey said. “That painting was worth over $50,000. So, had he not had it appraised and something had happened to that painting, he would’ve been out most of that, because he probably would’ve gotten $1000. It depends on what the policy limits were.”
With that framework as a metaphor for businesses, Causey urged owners to learn what their policy limits are for their insurance, even if an insurance agent tells them that everything is covered.
For business owners like Button, Causey did not recommend legal recourse. Usually, he said, insurance companies have a rock solid legal ground to stand on. Instead, they should contact his office for help.
“What we do is ask folks, if they’re having difficulties, they need to go to our website, ncdoi.gov, or they can email,” Causey instructed.
Causey offered his direct email: mike.causey@ncdoi.gov.
“I actually get these emails directly,” said Causey. “We can get immediate help for people that need help, but we can’t help them if they don’t let us hear from them.”
Button heard that loud and clear.
“I’m glad that Mike Causey said that you can bring these issues to the Commissioner of Insurance,” Button said. “I hope that the Attorney General and the Insurance Commissioner will work on ensuring that policies are helping people read the fine print and ensuring that policies get paid out. They deserve to be paid out.”
Correction – 4:03 p.m. Oct. 24, 2024: An earlier version of this article read that Button was receiving water from North Fork. The water at Cúrate is actually supplied from potable water tanks that are refilled daily.