Homeowners who fail to conduct regular maintenance checks could have their insurance claims rejected in the event of weather-related damage to their homes, warns Alexander Forbes Insurance.
Gari Dombo, managing director of Alexander Forbes, says the recent heavy rains in parts of the country have put insurers under enormous pressure to respond to flood damage claims from thousands of clients.
“Beyond the distress caused to policy holders, flood damage is also driving up insurers’ loss ratios,” he said.
“Insurance is there to protect against unforeseen losses. A good insurance policy should respond to policy holders regardless of the seriousness of the circumstances.”
He said most standard policies should cover the following weather-related damage:
l Damage caused by storm, flood, wind, water, hail or snow.
l The cost of consequent rain damage to your home’s interior or its contents.
The scale of recent flooding has made it impossible for insurers to process all claims swiftly. As such, Dombo appealed to homeowners “to be patient and work together with their insurers during this difficult time”.
At the same time, homeowners must remember that insurance would protect them against sudden and unforeseen losses. Insurance “does not, however, cover damage resulting from a failure of routine maintenance”, warned Dombo.
Many homeowners mistakenly believed their insurance policy would cover any rain or storm damage. If they read it carefully, however, consumers would see that it required homeowners to take reasonable steps to reduce or prevent loss before damage took place.
“If homeowners fail to conduct reasonable maintenance a loss may not be considered unexpected, and in some cases insurers may reject the claim outright,” he said.
“For example, a policy will not necessarily cover rain damage to a house or contents if it results from a poorly maintained roof. If, however, a severe storm breaks a roof tile and buildings or contents suffer water damage insurers will pay as the damage was both sudden and unforeseen.”
Insurers would generally cover rain damage to the interior of a home unless they believed the home owner had failed to repair or ignored a leak, or negligently ignored routine maintenance.
“Insurance is not there to pay for your household maintenance. All homeowners should look after their property as if they were not insured,” said Dombo.
To avoid insurers rejecting weather-related claims Dombo advised homeowners to conduct the following checks on their property:
l Check the gutters, valleys and roof flashing for blockages. Anything that impedes the flow of water is likely to cause leaks and consequential damage. Damage resulting from blocked gutters or valleys or perished flashing will not be covered by your insurer.
l Check flashing regularly, ideally every year. Both galvanised zinc and membrane flashing become brittle and porous over time. Similarly, malthoid underlay used on some slate roofs becomes brittle with time, allowing water to penetrate.
l If you have a thatch roof, have the thatch inspected and repaired as necessary. Thatched roofs generally need to be restored every five years in the inland regions and every three years at the coast.
l Inspect the screws on asbestos type and iron roofs regularly. Screws on these roofs loosen over time.
l Remedy damp issues without delay.
“Ignoring damp will lead to deterioration that will be attributed to poor maintenance and will not be covered by your insurer,” said Dombo.
He said the above list, although not conclusive, should serve “to illustrate the conceptual difference between insured damage caused by sudden and unforeseen situations – as opposed to damage resulting from poor maintenance as structures and materials are allowed to erode or decay over time without check”.
joseph.booysen@inl.co.za - Cape Argus