Towns, county to get credit for over-insurance
And NYMIR may change its rules to offer what its customers thought they were buying, said
He came to Monday's county
"I've got to protect the company, but I want to do what's right for the customer," he said. "We're owned by you, the customers. This is why we're different."
At issue is a confusing policy offered by NYMIR. Customers can decide how much they want to receive if a truck is declared "totaled," but only until that vehicle is 10 years old. During that time, they can insure it up to the amount it would cost to buy a brand new truck.
But once the truck turns 10, NYMIR will only reimburse the market value of the vehicle -- usually a tiny percentage of the replacement cost.
The county and many towns didn't understand the rule and kept paying to insure their trucks at replacement value. Hartford Department of Public Works Superintendent
For now, the company will look back five years and adjust each customer's policy to reflect the maximum coverage they should have had.
The county may have overpaid by as much as
While NYMIR will adjust the policies, Custer said he's also going to consider a new rule that would let customers do what they thought they were doing all along.
"I think it's time to re-examine, to tweak out coverage, so that you're buying the right coverage," he said. "The 10-year rule is obsolete, in my head. I think you're turning trucks back a lot less than you used to, especially with the 2 percent (tax) cap hanging over your heads."
He's going to consider offering a policy in which customers can choose the "stated value" of a vehicle and receive that amount if the truck is totaled. That would mean that customers would "get what you paid for," he said.
The company might also need to "do better" in communicating the 10-year rule to customers, he said.
Many supervisors liked the stated value idea, but
"If we make one mistake and we have a loss, that's on us," he said. "The risk is transferred to the town and county. These mistakes could be more costly."
Custer also obliquely blamed the county's broker,
"I'd like to think it's an aberration, a miscommunication between insured and broker," he said.
"Which is why we rely on an agent to guide us through this minefield," he said.
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