Hi,
A little back story, early August of 2011 we had a house fire (accidental, no one was home at the time) that caused extensive damage to a small corner of the house - the only structural damage and require replacement to back sliding door & deck, the rest was a clean up and repaint (building wise).
So I have two insurance co. 1 for contents, and the other for building. The building insurance company is through body corporate hence the seperate companies for the respective requirements. So I contacted those companies as in a state of shock, I don't know what I was covered for, and after verifying that I am a customer, tentatively ask am I covered for accidental fire damage. Of course they say yes and arrange for inspector / people to come out and start the clean up.
I only had to pay the excess fees as mentioned in the policies, arrange payment for an emergency electrician on our first night after the fire. I only signed a contract that allows builders to start work on fixing the said structural damage and repainting and cleaning the building side (I checked nothing to state I owe them money, approx $30K worth of work). Fast forward 2 months everything was done except air condition replacement which took longer to arrange. But nothing to worry about.
So at worst, everything was completed by Nov 2011, no more contact with insurance company. Yesterday the 16th April, I get a phone call from the company the work was outsourced to, to tell me that the insurance company told them that we weren't insured enough. I was in quite a shock with the phone call because I start imagining I got to pay $30-$40K back to insurance.
All she asks did you know you weren't insured enough? I said no, I just call the insurance company and ask them if we were and they said yes and started sending people out to do stuff. Not once since August did we had to argue over policy, whether or not we are insured or not, or if we have reached our insurance limit, etc etc or any argument over payment of anything, just send them invoice or arrange times for builders to have access to the property, it was relatively easy going. Alot of this was done via email or phone calls, I still have the emails and of course no record of the phone conversations.
Yes I didn't read the insurance policy, until the fire, I was ignorant about how much cover I had, I just knew we had 1 through body corporate. So yes I don't know if legally any recourse will happen now that the insurance company says we're not covered.
Can I stand behind the argument, if the insurance company themselves didn't check my policy than what luck do I have in knowing if I'm insured or not? You would expect the insurance company to pick a fight over the policy before all the work was done not after? What can they do? Unpaint my walls, pull up my deck or take out the back door? (which is poor quality and will need replacing soon) if I don't have the $30-40K to give back?
PS sorry for the long story and consequently I have gone out and got a building insurance with the same company that took care of my contents insurance.
A little back story, early August of 2011 we had a house fire (accidental, no one was home at the time) that caused extensive damage to a small corner of the house - the only structural damage and require replacement to back sliding door & deck, the rest was a clean up and repaint (building wise).
So I have two insurance co. 1 for contents, and the other for building. The building insurance company is through body corporate hence the seperate companies for the respective requirements. So I contacted those companies as in a state of shock, I don't know what I was covered for, and after verifying that I am a customer, tentatively ask am I covered for accidental fire damage. Of course they say yes and arrange for inspector / people to come out and start the clean up.
I only had to pay the excess fees as mentioned in the policies, arrange payment for an emergency electrician on our first night after the fire. I only signed a contract that allows builders to start work on fixing the said structural damage and repainting and cleaning the building side (I checked nothing to state I owe them money, approx $30K worth of work). Fast forward 2 months everything was done except air condition replacement which took longer to arrange. But nothing to worry about.
So at worst, everything was completed by Nov 2011, no more contact with insurance company. Yesterday the 16th April, I get a phone call from the company the work was outsourced to, to tell me that the insurance company told them that we weren't insured enough. I was in quite a shock with the phone call because I start imagining I got to pay $30-$40K back to insurance.
All she asks did you know you weren't insured enough? I said no, I just call the insurance company and ask them if we were and they said yes and started sending people out to do stuff. Not once since August did we had to argue over policy, whether or not we are insured or not, or if we have reached our insurance limit, etc etc or any argument over payment of anything, just send them invoice or arrange times for builders to have access to the property, it was relatively easy going. Alot of this was done via email or phone calls, I still have the emails and of course no record of the phone conversations.
Yes I didn't read the insurance policy, until the fire, I was ignorant about how much cover I had, I just knew we had 1 through body corporate. So yes I don't know if legally any recourse will happen now that the insurance company says we're not covered.
Can I stand behind the argument, if the insurance company themselves didn't check my policy than what luck do I have in knowing if I'm insured or not? You would expect the insurance company to pick a fight over the policy before all the work was done not after? What can they do? Unpaint my walls, pull up my deck or take out the back door? (which is poor quality and will need replacing soon) if I don't have the $30-40K to give back?
PS sorry for the long story and consequently I have gone out and got a building insurance with the same company that took care of my contents insurance.
