Damage in recent storms - insurance claim advice sought

[see_change]

One of our properties was damaged in the recent Sydney storms . We've never claimed on house insurance before .

Water got in at back of property , two story and has got into the level between the two stories causing damage to the ceiling between the levels , extensive warping of the wooden floors . There were initial concerns about the electrics in the first few days but now things have dried out there are no " obvious problems "

The rear facade is windows and some water appears to have tracked in through the top of the upper level windows , come down and then in through the bottom of the windows . Some water has tracked though the ceiling further into the house and damaged another ceiling .

We weren't there and the story of what happened is somewhat confused , but it also appears that one sliding door ( which was closed and latched ) appears to have been blown open with water coming in there .

My concern is the insurance company may say the door couldn't have been secured properly and might try to deny the claim . The area has been declared a natural disaster area , winds supposedly peaked at 195 k with many big gum trees coming down .

See_change

 

[wylie]

Just lodge the claim and see how it goes. What else can you do?

 

[chindonly]

I don't beleive it will be a problem.

Plenty of damage everywhere else, so hard for them to disprove.

We had damage in the hail storms in Brisbane a few years ago (2 houses + 2 cars) and they didn't even ask why we didn't move them under cover - just processed the claim.

It did take a while to finalize everything though simply due to the huge volume of claims.

 

[Perp]

It would have been better to lodge the claim immediately after the storm, but it shouldn't be too big an issue to lodge now.

How much of an issue the delay might or might not be will depend a lot on your insurer, and even the particular claims officer you get.

It will help if you have contemporaneous records, e.g. photos of water ingressing at time, text messages saying "water has come in", etc.

 

[see_change]

It would have been better to lodge the claim immediately after the storm, but it shouldn't be too big an issue to lodge now.

How much of an issue the delay might or might not be will depend a lot on your insurer, and even the particular claims officer you get.

It will help if you have contemporaneous records, e.g. photos of water ingressing at time, text messages saying "water has come in", etc.

No one was there when it happened .

Cliff

 

[Perp]

No one was there when it happened .

Gotcha, then provided you're lodging a claim as soon as you became aware of the damage, I can't see that you should have any issues. Good luck!

 

[Tim86]

I was with Westpac when I claimed for storm damage to my PPOR in the Brisbane Storm at the end of last year.

I thought they would try to screw me out of the claim.

But I was very pleasantly surprised with the insurance company. They gave me what I was claiming and then some.

 

[Perp]

I was with Westpac when I claimed for storm damage to my PPOR in the Brisbane Storm at the end of last year.

I thought they would try to screw me out of the claim.

But I was very pleasantly surprised with the insurance company. They gave me what I was claiming and then some.

Westpac and Comminsure are the two with the best reputation for home and contents insurance; I'm not surprised. Great to hear.