This isn't a good thing for Nagico. What business or property owner in such a area would insure a structure only for fire? Especially, when the threat of windstorm damage is always present during hurricane season? If they claimed that damage was caused by flooding/storm surge, businesses may have needed to endorse that additional coverage onto their policy. But, typically when damage is caused by windstorm (the roof being torn away), resulting damage from heavy rain, etc. would also be covered. I wonder how many other claims are still being challenged some 17 months after Irma?

Actually, we have a pretty expensive building here in our town that is NOT insured for wind damage, because the cost was too prohibitive to do so. It is insured for other perils though. It's actually not that unusual.

I'm sure there are a ton of other claims that are not yet resolved. I actually am not sure that the claim for the airport has been resolved yet??

Hi Carol ... just a quick suggestion that you may want to consider when insuring property (business or personal). You are correct that adding windstorm and hail coverage can get pricey, but you can select higher deductibles to protect you in case of catastrophic damage. Besides hurricanes, Florida also has a fair number of tornadoes each year that would require the peril of windstorm on the policy. I actually just retired after 37 years in the insurance industry so I naturally take an interest in articles like the one you posted. Nope, I didn't sell insurance but I wrote policy language and worked with an actuarial staff so I had to stay on top of this stuff! Just a thought.

Hi. I just know OF that situation, and it's not anything that I have any personal control over. I was just responding to your comment which I took to mean that no one would buy a policy that doesn't cover wind damage. That could be it's not what you meant. Regardless, I do know that many businesses and private individuals in SXM have NO insurance coverage at all. I have no idea what it costs to get hurricane insurance in SXM but it can't be cheap. Even here in Florida, it is very expensive, AND there are high percentage deductibles. When we had our damage due to Irma here, by the time they deducted the very high deductible and depreciation and whatever, we got paid about 1/3 of our loss..

Thanks, Carol for posting this. Complicated, isn't it? This helps restore my faith a bit in NAGICO. They use the term beneficiary in the article as i they were talking about life insurance, but in reality I believe this would be better described as the lien holder. Whatever, I'm sure the past 17 months have been quite interesting for this insurance company, and when the last claim is finally settled they'll remain a strong and solvent company.

Yes, it appears the dispute was about paying the money to a secured creditor of the hotel, versus directly to the hotel. Pretty standard policy term to have insurance proceeds paid to a mortgage holder. Now what happens from there in this case is unclear. When we had our claim on our house here, the money was payable to us and the mortgage company and then they signed it over to us, I guess once they confirmed we were up to date on our mortgage. PERHAPS the hotel is not up to date on those payments and they figure that the mortgage holder won't pay the money over to them ?

Payment is always made out to the Bank and then the Bank will decide if to further the check to the home holder. We didn't have any problem with Nagico and our settlement. Actually our settlement was settled within two weeks.