Popular Restaurant in Lansing Remains Closed Due to Insurance Delays

As long as you are dealing with an insurance company, you can never be certain that they won't make your life harder by delaying, denying, or underpaying valid claims. So just like patients, drivers, or homeowners, a small business is at risk of being treated unfairly by insurance companies.

Since a building fire in April, the Flap Jack Shack in Lansing has remained closed, leaving customers of the popular restaurant wanting to know when it will return. While the restaurant's owner, Jozef Gjonaj, and its staff are excited for the restaurant to open, a dispute with Auto-Owners Insurance has left the Flap Jack Shack's future uncertain.

On June 25th, Auto-Owners received an insurance claim for $2.2 million of interior damages from the fire, according to public adjuster Jeff Moss. An adjuster acts as an intermediary between a policyholder and an insurance company, and Moss has been the Flap Jack Shack's adjuster for previous insurance claims under different insurers without any issue.

This time, however, Auto-Owners has been repeatedly delaying the process and preventing full payment from being made. The insurer has been disputing ownership of various items in the restaurant, creating long delays. It has pushed back against Gjonaj's responsibility for the damage, claiming that building owner Sam Eyde Management Company is instead responsible. Both Moss and Sam Eyde have repeatedly sent letters and documents, including the lease, clarifying that Gjonaj's company J&G Restaurant is responsible for all interior repairs.

Even while in possession of multiple copies of documents verifying Gjonaj's responsibility for interior damage and repairs, Auto-Owners continues to delay payments and debate whether coverage exists. In the six months following the fire, Gjonaj has only received a single reimbursement for "loose items", totaling less than $130,000, or less than 6% of the claim amount.

As the wait drags on for Auto-Owners to fulfill their end of the agreement and provide coverage for the repairs, the restaurant and its approximately 40 employees continue to suffer greatly. "That restaurant was like a family." Jozef said in a Lansing State Journal Article. "We had waitresses and cooks working there for like 27 years. Every one of them was long-term." Several employees have been forced to move on to other employment. Others continue to wait until the Flap Jack Shack reopens.

The restaurant has been operating for more than 40 years, and in its absence, the Lansing community has missed it greatly. Outside the restaurant today, you can find messages written on the glass targeting Auto-Owners, including "Shame on you Auto Owners", "Beware: Auto-Owners", and "We are not open yet because Auto Owners won't pay us what they owe."

The Flap Jack Shack has been a staple of the Lansing community, and because of Auto-Owners' constant delays, the restaurant has been forced to stay closed. Insurance companies should not be able to go back on their contracts as Auto-Owners has done, and should be legally obligated to pay out their claims promptly and to the full amount agreed upon.