The owner of Edinburgh's iconic Liquid Rooms has spoken of the "big problem" their industry is facing amid the Covid-19 shutdown.
John "Mick" McWilliams says their insurance policy guaranteed a £25,000 payout in the event of infectious diseases – but insists they are yet to see any of this money. He fears this could be as coronavirus didn't exist when the policy was taken out, and therefore might not be included on it.
And with nightclubs and venues among the first places to shut – and likely the last places to open – he reckons this could present a problem across the whole industry.
He told our sister title the Daily Record that he's taken out an overdraft to help in the meantime as the government loan scheme has been "a disaster".
He said: “We have had nothing back and we are going round in circles.
“Our policy guaranteed an immediate £25,000 payout for infectious diseases but that hasn’t happened. We were covered for a range of diseases like SARS but at the time of taking out the policy Covid-19 did not exist, so it could not be on the policy.
“It is very closely related to SARS and there may be a lot of legal arguing about that but it won’t help businesses if that gets locked up in court for years. Many businesses will have died by then.
“Our big problem is that our sector was the first to shut down and we may well be the last to re-open and there will no cash coming in meantime.
“My bank has given me an overdraft to tide me over for come what may - a safety net - but the Government loan scheme has been a disaster, full of obstacles and hoops to jump through.”
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has already ordered insurers to pay out valid claims related to the Covid-19 outbreak as soon as possible
Insurance broker NDML, which represents hundreds of pubs across the country, said it is fighting a legal battle against the challenges posed by non-paying insurers.
John added: “The Liquid Room has stood here for 20 years and I’ve run the site for 37 years. We did an online event and we got thousands of people tuning in and we know we have a client base that will support us. I’m hoping that we will be reading in the papers about the post coronavirus parties in the not too distant future.”
