“If you put the board on the policy, and the company did not authorize you to do that, they’ll deny the claim.” Nieroda said. “There won’t be any coverage, and if there’s no coverage, they’re going to go after the agency, and we didn’t want to put our agency at risk.”

Nieroda said because he owns the building where his business is situated, he ran into the same problem as Smith. He said he sat down with town architect Tim Busse and Goss to talk over the situation.

“The attorney said ‘That’s the way it is, you have to comply, it you don’t we’ll sue you,’” he said.

Nieroda said he eventually found one insurance company that agreed to a limited version of the “additional insured” requirement, and he submitted it. The board never told him it was unacceptable.

“We were thinking when we moved here in 2006, we would get a lot of new business coming, but we got very little to zilch, and it’s because of this clause,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smith, who moved to New Town from a loft apartment near Forest Park, has filed a complaint with the Missouri Division of Insurance asking them to look into the situation. He’s also had his agent list New Town as an “additional interest” on his policy.