Following the Auckland Anniversary storm and Cyclone Gabrielle, many of us have experienced first-hand the insurance claims process. Our Body Corporate Managers are seeing the insurance sector overwhelmed at the moment. Insurers are reinforcing their processes to ease the workload and are assigning dedicated claims advisors, appointing assessors, arranging quotes to repair and ‘making good’ to insured property. It would also be dealing with the emotional toll affected homeowners and tenants are facing due to red stickered properties.

If you own a damaged property your first responsibility is to act as a prudent uninsured (act as though the policyholder is not insured) and take all necessary steps to mitigate further or increased damages. If this means emergency repairs and or drying / clean-up, proceed on this basis and confirm these have been actioned when submitting the claims notification / documents – don’t wait for an insurer to give instructions.

Some basic points to bear in mind when submitting a claim / claims notification:

• Always present detailed photos of the damages (this will assist an insurer to determine if they need to appoint an assessor or not).
• The insurer will always request a cause report from a professional, confirming proximate cause of the damages, along with quotes / invoices to repair / replace / reinstate.
• Most insurers don’t have specific service providers, you can provide quotes from your preferred providers.
• Never admit liability (even if it was obvious who was at fault). This may prejudice an insurer’s subrogation rights / ability to defend any liability claim against the Body Corporate. A third party should first approach their own insurers, who will liaise with the Body Corporate insurers on a recovery if required.
• There will always be exceptions to the rule, but in general the above will assist immensely.

The above is not intended to replace any official insurer’s responses or further requests, but to attempt to facilitate quicker turnaround times on claims and all-round better client satisfaction in this regard.

One thing that we have found very useful is to have an emergency list of companies that you could call upon yourself in the event of needing to undertake emergency repairs. Think windscreen/glass repairs, cleaners, builders, flood restoration specialists. For our Auckland clients we can provide you an insurance approved list of such companies should that be of interest to you.