Used car dealers have a seasonal demon to watch out for and this is the time of year it rears its head. I’m talking about hailstorms. If one sweeps across your lot you are likely to suffer a huge amount of property damage. In fact, some of the biggest claims we see are from these Spring and Summer hailstorms. Do you know if you have the right protection?
Hailstorms are often local in their impact but if it happens over your lot, you can expect huge losses to your inventory. Most used car dealers have their inventory stored outside and are vulnerable to hail losses but this is the type of protection that many car dealers don’t think about until it is too late. So how do you know if you have coverage?
Well fortunately the garage insurance policy is a standardized form so it is easy to know if you have the coverage. Hail coverage is a part of your comprehensive coverage which is part of the dealers open lot coverage for your cars. The dealers open lot insurance coverage will have a section with a limit and deductible for both collision and comprehensive coverages.
Pull out your policy right now and check to see that you have a limit of coverage for comprehensive coverage on your dealers open lot section. Now, also check out how the deductible reads. The standard form has a per vehicle deductible and a maximum per loss deductible. The per loss limit is typically 5 times the per vehicle deductible. So, if you have a $500 deductible on your comprehensive per vehicle, then you probably also have a $2500 maximum deductible per event. There are a few companies out there that set their policies up so that the only deductible is per loss, not per vehicle. This is an important distinction. In my previous example this would increase your claim payment from the insurance company by $2000. For more information about per vehicle deductibles and what is available out there, read my earlier blog here.
If you need any help at all interpreting your deductibles or how they might pay in a claim, please feel free to give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheAutoDealersHelper.com. We specialize in helping used car dealers with their insurance needs all across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.