Prior to Hurricane Irene’s floodwaters, MINT was on the ground floor of the Waitsfield Hotel building in the Bridge Street Marketplace. The furnishings were severely damaged by the flooding and the building was structurally damaged.
The owners of the restaurant spent the three months after the flood helping clean the space, cooking and serving lunch from the basement of the Waitsfield United Church of Christ and working their way through bureaucratic red tape.
To be told now that their claim was denied because their business was located in a basement is wrong and immoral.
Keep in mind that the owners of the business specifically bought flood insurance for their restaurant. Last May when spring runoff raised the level of the Mad River, they upped their coverage to be on the safe side.
When Irene struck they were devastated that the restaurant they had painstakingly built had been devastated but took comfort from the fact that they were well insured. They’ve been waiting to get back to their space for three months and could be back in there in three to four weeks had their claim not been denied.
Here’s what’s wrong with the denial from their insurance company. First, the company took their premiums and then let them raise their “flood insurance” coverage without ever notifying them of their status as basement dwellers unqualified for a flood insurance claim. That’s insurance fraud at a minimum. If the insurance company took their money for flood insurance and would now disqualify them, their premiums need to be refunded with interest.
Second, it’s arguable whether that space is in a basement. It’s on the ground level as is the Artisans’ Gallery. To enter or leave their restaurant, one walked in from the ground, not down some stairs. Waitsfield’s zoning defines a basement as any area of a building that has the lesser of three sides or 60 percent of its walls below grade. The building that housed MINT did not meet those criteria.
This denial is a flagrant attempt by an insurance company to deny a claim based on a loophole that is absurd on its face and nothing more than an attempted sleight of hand.
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