Garage Insurance – Division I or Division II?

It is often said that the garage insurance policy is one of the most misunderstood forms of insurance. The problem is that this form of insurance essentially is a hybrid of a general liability insurance policy and a business auto insurance policy. More than that though, this form is a specialized form, used only for auto body and repair shops and auto dealers. Given that, many agents, who don’t specialize in helping these specific industries with their insurance needs, don’t really understand the ins and outs of the garage insurance policy and as a result they may issue a policy to you under the wrong form. So how do you know if you have the right protection?

First of all, understand that although the garage liability policy is appropriate for both an automotive repair shop and an auto dealer, within that group, you need to have the correct classification on your garage insurance policy. There are 2 different divisions of coverage on the garage policy, Division I and Division II. These divisions not only affect the policy form itself, but they also impact on the rating structure and how your final premium is determined. For these reasons, it is important that you have your policy set up correctly in the first place whether you are buying auto dealers insurance or automotive repair insurance.

Division I is the division that should be used if your business is an auto dealership. If however, your business is automotive repair or body work, then your garage liability policy should be written as a division II garage insurance policy. If you are unsure whether or not your policy is set up correctly, you can check to see which division your policy is written on by checking the declarations page of your garage insurance policy.

What happens if you are involved in auto sales and auto repair? If that is the case, then your policy should be written on the Division I form.

As you can see, there are a lot of tripwires out there for business who repair or sale cars who are looking for a garage insurance policy. You need an insurance agent who specializes in the garage insurance policy and helping both car dealers and automotive repair shops with their insurance needs. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we are that specialist. Our used car dealer clients and our auto and body repair shop clients are located all over NC, SC, GA, TN and Va. If we can help you with your garage insurance questions, or if you would like a quote on your current insurance program, please give us a call, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us our auto repair and body shop web page or our used car dealers insurance help site.

The information used for this article can be found in its entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Garage Liability Insurance and Garage Keepers Insurance – What’s The Difference?

The garage insurance form is a specialty form used only for the automotive industry, specifically motor vehicle repair and motor vehicle sales. Because of this, many insurance agents don’t fully understand this policy form. And if the insurance agents are often confused, you can imagine what the business owners in the motor vehicle industry might feel. Here’s a short explanation to help you understand this policy a little bit better.

Garage liability insurance is the term used to describe liability insurance protection for both repair shop owners and new and used car dealers. This is the part of the policy that essentially protects the business from liability claims for bodily injury or property damage as a result of an at fault accident in a vehicle covered by the policy. Which vehicles are covered by this garage liability section is determined by the symbol code showing on the policy itself. For a complete list of possible symbol codes, please read my previous article about garage insurance symbols by clicking here.

Garage Keepers insurance is also part of the garage policy. However, this coverage is not for liability insurance and this coverage would not be appropriate for a car dealer unless the dealer is also repairing vehicles that are not owned by the dealership. That is because garage keepers is designed to protect against physical damage losses to vehicles that are in the care, custody or control of the repair shop. So, for example, if you are repairing a customer’s vehicle and you test drive that vehicle, you have an exposure for garage keepers collision insurance while you are out on the road with that vehicle. Likewise, if your clients leave their vehicles with your overnight, you have an exposure for fire, theft or even windstorm or hail damage to these vehicles. You would need garage keepers comprehensive coverage to protect against these types of losses.

The garage insurance policy is an unusual form and if you are in the business of buying, selling or repairing motor vehicles, you are best served purchasing your garage insurance policy through an agent who specializes in this type of policy form. At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers and automotive repair and body shops all over North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. If we can help you with a second opinion on your garage insurance needs, please feel free to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at http://www.clinardinsurance.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from information at http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

Used Car Dealers Insurance – Watch Those Limits

At Clinard Insurance Group we specialize in helping Used Car Dealers with their Garage Liability and Dealer Open Lot Insurance Coverages. We insure over 300 dealers in NC, SC, GA, TN and VA. With that kind of exposure to this industry, we see the policies that a lot of dealers have before they come to us and we see some real messes. One of the scariest mistakes dealers make when buying garage liability insurance is how they set up their liability limits.

Let’s face it, garage liability insurance is a real specialty product. This is an insurance policy written for just one industry. As a result, most agencies only have a couple of these types of policies on the books, if any, and they rarely understand the form completely. If you are a used car dealer and you are trusting your business to an agent who doesn’t currently handle 25 or more dealers just like you, then chances are you are not using a specialist and this could cost you big in many ways. Just because an insurance agent can write the insurance for your dealership doesn’t mean her or she really understands what he or she is doing.

So now what is the liability limit trap? Well in some states, and North Carolina is a classic example, the state government has set up a reinsurance facility. This is a place of last resort where people with bad driving records can still get insurance. The reason this is a problem for dealers is that most insurance companies don’t understand used car dealers and don’t want to insure them. They just assume that these dealers are letting everyone and anyone drive around with the “moveable” dealer tag. They don’t understand your business so they don’t want to write you. So if you call an agent that doesn’t specialize in car dealers and ask him for a quote, the only option he may have for insuring your dealership is the reinsurance facility. So what?

Well here’s the problem. Most of these reinsurance facilities, and NC is one of them, have a very low highest liability limit available. In NC that is $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident bodily injury. So that is all that you could buy from this inexperienced agent. And if you didn’t know better you might believe that this is all you need or all you could ever buy. Nothing could be further from the truth. These limits are very low in terms of the types of claims I have seen incurred by auto dealers. As a dealer, you need to more accurately assess exactly how much insurance you need and then be able to purchase the liability limits that will protect you, your business, and your personal and family assets.

If you are looking for an insurance agent that understands how to insure used car dealers and will take the time to listen to you and help you develop an insurance program that meets your needs and does so for the lowest possible cost, then I suggest you call Clinard Insurance Group, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information from this article was pulled from an article at www.insuranceanswerguy.com.

The Dealers Open Lot Deductible Trap

Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, specializes in handling the insurance needs of used car dealers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. With so many clients in this industry, I thought I should speak out about a little known provision in the dealers open lot coverage that creates a nasty surprise for many dealers after a claim has occurred. I call it the comp deductible trap.

Any dealer that has a substantial investment in his or her inventory should carry dealers open lot insurance as part of his or her Garage Liability Policy. This will provide comprehensive and collision coverage for the inventory on the lot and out on the road and it is the least expensive if you add it to your garage policy. Just like your personal auto insurance, the comprehensive and collision coverage in the dealers open lot protection has deductibles. These deductibles are the first dollar amount that the dealer must pay before the insurance company pays out for the claim. But here is the catch….. the deductible on the comprehensive coverage is almost always a per car deductible. And that can add up.

Let’s say you have 20 cars on your lot and a hail storm hits your dealership. 10 of your cars are very badly damaged. You know that you have comprehensive coverage on your dealers open lot so you pull out your policy and see that you have a $1000 deductible. Okay, you think to yourself, this is bad but I guess I can cough up $1000 since I have 10 cars that are in awful shape. When your claims adjuster shows up to start working on this claim for you he reminds you that the deductible is $1000 per car with a 5 car limit. This is the way most open lot coverages are written. Suddenly your $1000 deductible has turned into $5000 and you are really singing the blues. Your cash flow is wrecked for months.

How can you protect yourself from this trickery? Well, first of all, be sure that you read and understand your policy completely. Also, only do business with an agent that specializes in the garage policy and used car dealers. Your business is very unique in the insurance world and you can’t afford to let and agent that has handled the insurance for 5 or 10 dealers in his career protect you. Let’s face it, your business is one of your most valuable assets and it can lead to your largest liability risks. Don’t let an inexperienced agent practice on learning the garage policy and its one of a kind ins and outs at your expense.

As I mentioned earlier, Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, handles the garage insurance needs for hundreds of used car dealers in 4 states. And the best part is we have found a company that does not have a per car deductible on comprehensive coverage in the dealers open lot insurance. So in the example above, if you were insured with Clinard Insurance Group, you would only pay $1000 for that devastating hail storm and not $5000. You can see how doing business with a specialist can be extremely valuable for you and your company. If you would like more information or help insuring your used car dealership, you can visit us online at www.theautodealershelper.com or call us, toll free at 877-687-7557.

The source material for this article was pulled from http://www.insuranceanswerguy.com/