A Hollard employee told his colleague to IGNORE MY LETTER and only focus on MY QUERY REGARDING a continuous DEBIT FROM MY ACCOUNT

After Hollard rejected my car claim based on the reason below, I contacted OSTI and a few weeks after that received feedback with which they sided with Hollard without following the matter in detail.

Bearing in mind that even after Hollard rejected, they continued to debit my account (very worrying). My tracker is a basic one and couldn't detect the speed, plus, the road I was travelling on didn't have neither road signs nor boards.

Reason from Hollard: We have assessed your claim. After carefully considering all the available information, we cannot accept the claim for the following reason/s: During the validation process of this claim, it was confirmed that you were travelling at a speed of 94km/h in 60km/h zone. Considering the way in which the accident occurred, we employed the services of an accident reconstruction expert whose finding confirmed that the speed at which you were driving the insured vehicle played a role in the collision.

We refer you to the Section C, Your responsibilities, Clause 3 and Cars section, Comprehensive Cover, Specific exclusions, Clause 9 as stated within your policy wording which reads as follows: C. Your responsibilities 3. You must maintain your property and prevent loss or damage You must maintain your property and take all reasonable steps to prevent loss or damage to your property. Following an event you must take reasonable steps to protect your property from further loss or damage. For example, if a pipe leaks and causes your home to be flooded, you have a responsibility to call in a plumber to turn off the flow of water to prevent further flooding and damage to your property.

9. Specific exclusions – what we do not cover Specific exclusions are in addition to the exclusions set out in the General exclusions section. Certain exclusions may be cancelled if you chose a benefit that gives you cover for something that would normally be excluded.

We will not pay a claim for any of the benefits set out in the Cars (Comprehensive cover) section of this policy that was caused by, or related to any of the following specific exclusions.

c. Exposing your car to situations that clearly have a high risk of loss or damage, for example crossing of a flooded road, or making a U-turn on a highway.

*The last statements doesn't say anything about exceeding the speed limit, which in my case was a thumbsuck*

Reason from OSTI: We refer to the above matter and attached the insurer’s further correspondence dated 05 June 2018, for the insured’s records.

The insured submitted a claim following a motor vehicle accident on 18 December 2017. The insurer rejected the claim on the basis that the insured had failed to take all reasonable steps that would be expected in preventing the loss.

During its assessment of the claim, the insurer appointed an accident reconstruction expert to validate the claim. This expert determined that the insured exceeded the speed limit by driving at a speed of 94km/h on a road where the speed limit is restricted to 60 km/h.

According to the insurer’s accident reconstruction expert, the excessive speed at which the insured was travelling was material to the loss. The accident was reported as a single vehicle accident where the insured lost control of the vehicle, and subsequently rolling the vehicle. The accident reconstruction expert concluded that the insured exhibited reckless behaviour by driving at an inappropriate speed that was too high for the circumstance, specific geometric road design, and time of day. Furthermore, he neglected to take all the existing possible risk factors into account to avert or minimise his risk in a possible incident situation.

The insured submitted that the insurer’s accident reconstruction expert made assumptions based on his previous experience and not the information relating to the incident at hand that he exceeded the speed limit. Furthermore, no negligence could be proven on his side as there was no alcohol involved and this was a pure accident.

No independent expert evidence has been provided by the insured to disprove the findings of the independent expert appointed by the insurer.

The insurer has established, on the balance of probabilities that the insured failed to take reasonable measures to prevent or minimize the loss or damage to the vehicle. We find that the calculated/reconstructed speed at which the insured had been driving just before the accident were the circumstances, reckless. On the evidence submitted the speed at which the insured was driving just before the accident was the main contributing factor to the collision.

Based on the abovementioned discrepancies and evidence available to us, we are not in a position to fault the insurer’s stance.

We are accordingly proceeding to close our file.

*OSTI never contacted me to request my Indepedent Expert*

This was my 3rd claim from Hollard and I strongly believe that like other insurers they only enjoy receiving money from it's clients. There were no markings related to my accident even from the "expert's" report, so how did he come to his conclusion. During the investigation, they kept asking if I was drunk. They tried to get my Tracker record which had nothing.

After my post here in HelloPeter Hollard lured me into reverting to their internal process to log a Dispute and from the email extraction below, it shows that no further review was done, they just wanted me to refrain from using this platform:

Email from a Dispute Resolution Specialist: From: Robert Lloyd Sent: 25 May 2018 11:53 AM To: Desmond Chinsamy <***> Cc: Janine Wilken <***> Subject: T149/18M / M TSITA / ***

Hi Desmond / Janine,

Please see the attached letter from client (just the part with regards to the premiums that were still debited) after the incident.

Please let me know if there is a refund due, how much and proof once refunded.

Desmond, ignore the rest of the letter from the client as it takes this matter no further, I will advise the Ombudsman (unless you want to comment on anything?)

Thanks, Rob

Alternative Dispute Resolution Specialist | Customer Centricity | South Africa

*A Hollard employee told his colleague to IGNORE MY LETTER and only focus on MY QUERY REGARDING a continuous DEBIT FROM MY ACCOUNT*