Unfortunately the understanding of the staff is a big factor in what they tell you, remembering that they are generally call centre staff so they may only have a basic understanding and throw their own interpretation in.
Insurance- who pays?
- Thread starter beachgurl
- Start date
I was told that if the kitchen was in situe at the time of purchase, it is Body Corp, however if renewed, it then becomes contents, however on resale reverts back to Body Corp. Doesn't make sense does it. Recently in QLD, there were a large number of fact sheets, which stem from decisions in QCAT, and in some situations, the goal posts have shifted. We constantly refer to these when were are trying to sort things out. Perhaps there are similar in other states.
Hi Brett,
Fair point about call center staff at Insurance companies...but it is not appropriate that due to their unintentional illadvise someone could end up with wrong policy is it & being advised over the phone you won't be able to prove advise given... at the claim time as well.... That's why i think policy documents should be as basic as could to be avoid any queries/confusion.....
Brett, for the strata titled unit for above mentioned AAMI policy wat's best way to find how much contents cover required, any suggestion/tips...
i wonder if similar sort of fact sheet is available for VCAT (Victoria).
It's absolutely not fair, but not an easy one to solve. Remember when they legislated that all policy wording had to now be "Plain English" wordings. Yeah right. They are probably better than they were, but still written by lawyers and unfortunately far from what most people would consider Plain English.
That said, they are not easy to write as if there is anything ambiguous it will at the end of the day favour the Insured, hence they (lawyers) need to cover it off in the most detail possible. I know everyone believes that Insurers will do anything to get out of a claim, which can have some merit, however it's also true that there are a huge number of people that will try to exploit insurance policies and get paid for things that they shouldn't, so you end up with this vicious circle.
If everyone on both sides were honest and fair it would be a whole lot easier, but that's never going to happen.
In regard to how much contents, unless you can absolutely determine what you need to cover and for how much and ensure that doesn't change during the life of the policy, personally I would always opt for a policy that includes "up to" a sum insured that would more than cover it. For an unfurnished property the "up to $50,000" that is included in numerous landlord policies (not just ours) should be easily sufficient. This way you don't have to work it out exactly and there is no risk of "overinsuring".
In our case, if there is a claim for something that we consider "should"
be covered by the Body Corporate insurance (such as a kitchen), we would get you to give us a copy of the decline letter. This way it becomes possible for us to include items that may not have been covered by the Body Corporate for one reason or another.
How true that is. I know of someone (aged in her 80s) who had water damage. Her 40 year old yucky carpet is being replaced. One room was water damaged, but she is pushing the "it was top of the range" line and has settled for a dollar amount. She is using the funds for one room and it is enough to carpet the whole upstairs area in a lesser priced carpet.
Part of me says "good on you for using your head" but the other part of me things "what a rort". I suppose it could be considered fair or possibly justified if indeed the carpet was quality, but it just looked crappy to me. I believe some loss assessors just take the easiest way out. Say "yes" and get out the door to the next job.
The 40 year old curtains that she sewed herself are being replaced to the tune of $3K.
So, yes, the blame for our increased premiums certainly cannot simply be blamed on the greed of the insurance companies.
And our genuinely flooded, mouldy carpet that was "flooded" by water from up the hill that our drainage just couldn't cope with in a major Brisbane "event" wasn't covered by the flood cover we held and we have had to replace it ourselves with tiles at our own expense.
What is fair about that?
Hi Brett/Wylie,
Fair enough....each coin has two sides & there are people out their abusing the system as well....
Brett, unfortunately this AAMI policy does not have 'up to' sum insured.....so I'll have to decide on amount anyway....Planning to have chat to body corporate insurance company and AAMI to make sure i've enough cover....let's hope i get that right....
thanks for your input....
cheers
Fair enough....each coin has two sides & there are people out their abusing the system as well....
Brett, unfortunately this AAMI policy does not have 'up to' sum insured.....so I'll have to decide on amount anyway....Planning to have chat to body corporate insurance company and AAMI to make sure i've enough cover....let's hope i get that right....
thanks for your input....
cheers
