Overview

The Biltmore Hotel in Miami, Florida is a National Historic Landmark featured for its beautiful Mediterranean architecture and its surround 150-acre tropical landscape. The hotel was severely impacted by Hurricane Irma on September 10, 2017. Strong winds from the hurricane brutally damaged the hotel and extensive repairs were needed. Rollins Accounting was retained by the insured’s public adjuster to prepare the time element portion of the insurance claim.

Our experienced team provides unmatched forensic accounting and inventory expertise and insight in the insurance claims process to help policyholders fully recover under the terms of their insurance policy from unexpected losses.

Issues

  • The hotel’s busy season was less than 3 months away
  • The Biltmore Hotel relies on that time period for profitability
  • If the entire hotel were to shut down during busy season, business interruption losses would be significant and possibly exceed policy limits

Solutions Applied

  • During the time period before busy season, the insured was able to make rolling temporary repairs by shutting down portions of the hotel
  • Rollins accounting was able to measure business interruption losses related to temporary operations by comparing projected financials with the actual financials as they became available
  • Using historical records, Rollins Accounting prepared a business interruption claim detailing a “what if” scenario based on the estimated shutdown repair time necessary to fully repair the hotel
  • Rollins Accounting then negotiated directly with the insurance carrier’s forensic accountant to come to an agreement on potential future business interruption losses

Outcome

The impact to the hotel’s business was minimized due to the rolling temporary repairs made possible by the continual sizable partial payments received from the insurance carrier based largely upon Rollins Accounting’s business interruption loss projections. The time element claim presented by Rollins Accountingresulted in the necessary support for afinal lump sum settlement. The insured was ecstatic that the claim was settled quickly and they were overjoyed with the final settlement figure.

Highlights

  • The impact to the hotel’s business was minimized due to the rolling temporary repairs made possible by the continual sizable partial payments received from the insurance carrier based largely upon Rollins Accounting’s business interruption loss projections.
  • The time element claim presented by Rollins Accounting was the necessary support to substantiate a final lump sum settlement in an expedited manner.

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