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Insurance Industry VGB Enforcement

Posted by Wes Burdine on December 28, 2009 at 4:01am in Safety, Standards, and Codes
Hey Everyone,I am hearing the stirrings within the Insurance Industry of not renewing risk management policies for public pools and spas unless there is documentation of compliance. I have said all along the Insurance Industry will be the ones doing "back door" enforcement. It's not logistically possible for the CPSC to do it. In TN we have one CPSC Inspector and 5700 public pools alone (doesn't count spas). At CPSC's own assessment of 2.5 hours to verify compliance, this totals 14,250 hrs of work. Divide this by 365 days and you would have to work a 39 hr day....Well you can see where this is going. I know some states have received grants to assist in inspections, but the hoops which must be jumped through to obtain a grant are rather constrictive.I'd be interested to see if any of your clients have been affected, what are the insurance companies asking for, and how does a client prove compliance.

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Tags: insurance, vgb, management, risk
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Replies

  • Wes Burdine January 8, 2010 at 4:14pm
    That is encouraging Brody! Thanks.

    Brody Anderson said:
    Side note to all of this is the larger hotel chains that I have worked with; Embassy Suites, Marriott residence inn (most owner groups) each have a standards and safety group that required the properties to establish compliance by a certain date. The inspector that I dealt with at the Embassy Suites was actually pretty savvy about the VGB. Long story short, a great many groups that have a lot of exposure are taking it upon themselves to gain compliance with varification.
  • Brody Anderson January 8, 2010 at 12:23pm
    Side note to all of this is the larger hotel chains that I have worked with; Embassy Suites, Marriott residence inn (most owner groups) each have a standards and safety group that required the properties to establish compliance by a certain date. The inspector that I dealt with at the Embassy Suites was actually pretty savvy about the VGB. Long story short, a great many groups that have a lot of exposure are taking it upon themselves to gain compliance with varification.
  • Wes Burdine January 1, 2010 at 6:49am
    Scott,

    Oxymoronic, to say the least...My Momma used to say, "The helping hand strikes again."

    No doubt about the CPSC inspectors. I have spoken with quite a few, and frankly, they, and I mean each and every one of them, don't have a clue. Again, not knocking them. They have asked me if they could attend a seminar. All they have to go on is a 30 min video.

    I assume the insurance agencies are no better off. In fact, I am willing to bet most of them are further behind. Let's face it: We are the professionals in this field, and we still have questions.

    Any possible solutions to the issues at hand?
  • Scott Heusser December 31, 2009 at 2:14pm
    It is not JUST about compliance. There are still unanswered questions out there about what compliance consists of. For example, how do you measure the spacing of drains on opposite planes? Do you need to measure spacing of drains on opposite planes? Do you measure from pipe center, center of grate or closest edge to closest edge.....

    The CPSC are nowhere near experts on this Act. God love them, but they are quite ignorant regarding pools. That isn't a shot at them, just a statement of fact. I don't expect that insurance inspectors/adjusters are any more knowledgeable.

    A friend of mine owns an insurance adjusting company and we have talked this over several times. The consensus from his adjusters and other people is that since the governing body can't make up its mind on how or what to enforce it leaves insurance companies with nothing firm to lean on as far as rules go. Likely there will be insurance rate increases despite generally safer pools. Oxymoronic, I know.
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