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jJ
jpbotha J

1 reviews | Active since Nov 2016

05 Nov 2021, 22:03

Hollard Insurance only want your premiums. Non existent when theres a claim.

We’ve been using Hollard Insurance for the good part of 9 years now. We sold our property and bought our new home earlier this year. We decided to continue supporting our local broker Sapcor George and not insure with Standard Bank where our home loan is financed even though Standard Bank were cheaper. We did the same with our previous home. Unfortunately this was the biggest mistake we could ever have made...

Short Summary of Our Policy: Our home is insured for R 7.276m Household Contents insured for R 1m Vehicles include : Porsche Macan, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Nissan 370Z Coupe Jewellery Tech gadgets etc etc

The event:

We had an unfortunate incident on the 11th of July where we experienced excessive rains in July causing water damage to our paving and driveway area which lead to our boundary wall falling over onto our neighbours garages. (Our home is on an elevated stand).

Fortunately our neighbours damages were covered by their insurance with no issues due to the water damage.

Hollard Insurance sent their assesor out shortly after the event took place and they ended up turning down our claim saying the boundary wall was not built to standard. No mention of the paving damages.

For starters, the house and wall was built in 2002. So the boundary wall has been standing for 19 years and now its considered not built to scratch?

Even though the house we recently bought had an engineers certificate confirming all structures comply and stamped by the local municipality in 2012….

Yet Hollard Insurance turn down our claim…. We then get the initial Engineer who signed off in 2012 who also happens to be the original engineer when the house was built in 2002 to assess the damages.

Hes report confirms that the damages suffered are as a result of the excessive water we had. The wall that fell over was not designed as a dam wall.

This report has been sent back to Hollard to reassess the claim and it’s been more than 30 days now and still no communication from Hollard…

In total its been 4 months now…. Debit orders going off as per usual…. but Hollard Insurance are non existent.

Now, you probably wondering what’s my broker doing to assist? Absolutely nothing…apparently there was nothing they could do further.

After 9 years of being loyal and supporting local. Getting phone calls from opposition brokers and insurance companies on a weekly basis and being far cheaper, we still supported local. We referred multiple friends and family members to Sapcor George over the years and i even got a call 2 months prior to the event saying my policy was upgraded to “Prestige Clients”….

One supports local not to have to deal with call centres, not to feel like a number, to have a go to person if you need assistance.

What was once to believe that Hollard was a market leading Insurance Provider, seems Hollard has become a billing engine.

Fortunately there’s light at the end of the tunnel… We were highly recommended to Anton van der Mescht and Johan Strydom from Octofin who have been really helpful thus far. OurLegal Team are well prepared and next steps to escalate to the Ombudsman will follow this week.

I will update this post accordingly.

If Hollard Insurance continue to stall ill be sure to share this post on Facebook and warn others not to make the same mistake we have trusting Hollard as our Insurance Provider.

0
Replies (7)
jJ
jpbotha J's update06 Nov 2021, 15:03
Reviewer Update
* Please note the incident date was the 11th of Aug.
Hollard Insurance
Hollard Insurance's reply08 Nov 2021, 11:52
Official
Hello Mr Botha

Thank you for contacting us, we are attending to your complaint,  and will revert back to your forthwith.

Regards
Customer Resolution Team


jJ
jpbotha J's update16 Nov 2021, 21:21
Reviewer Update
So another 11 days have passed since my initial post and Hollard Insurance have sent a team out to asses…. Feedback below.

Based on the feedback from our broker today it turns out our paving is now also seen as not sub standard quality installation of paving.

Even though the water damage report from the original engineer who was involved with the initial build in 2002, our paving as well as our wall that collapsed is now classified as sub standard quality/workmanship?

How on earth did Standard Bank find value and valued our property for R 7.276m 3 months prior to the incident?

Clearly i should rather have accepted Standard Bank’s much more affordable insurance at the time, but i decided to continue supporting Hollard Insurance…. As i have been for years…

Based on the 1731 - 1 star reviews of a total of 2460 reviews on Hellopeter right now, that’s 70% of people Rating Hollard Insurance with a 1 star rating.

Not to mention that we’re 3 months down the line since the event and all Hollard is doing is to look for ways and refer to clauses / loopholes to walk away from the incident….

As most people insured by Hollard this leaves a huge question mark whether all other items on our policies are indeed covered? Cars, jewellery etc….

I cant help to think, is my Porsche actually covered on my policy or not? Should something happen, would there be an excuse / loophole to say its considered a fast car so unfortunately not?

The lady who called me the next morning apologised for the delayed process and said that she totally understood my frustrations.

Well, i gave Hollard more than a week to rectify the situation and hopefully restore the faith. We put on hold taking legal action and going to the ombudsman… only cause I thought this may all be a misunderstanding and will be rectified shortly.

Facts:

The house we bought has been standing for 18/9 years until the recent excessive rains we had caused water damage to our paving and caused the wall to fall over…. Hollard now says its sub standard quality / workmanship.

Hollard, you can be great-full the hellopeter site doesn’t have an option to upload pictures of our property right now, properties in our area are considered prime real estate….

Even taken into account that the original engineer involved with the initial build, with an engineers report signed off and stamped by the municipality that all structures were sound and in place when we bought the property. - this now means nothing to Hollard?

Happy to take our premiums and so to speak, “cover” our property…..let alone our cars, home contents, jewellery etc…..

Problem i see here is that 70% of reviewers on Hellopeter have been negatively impacted by Hollard?

Based on the unhappiness of so many on this site with Hollard. I think it’s time Carte Blanche is involved.

I’ve attached the link below for all those as frustrated as what we are and negatively impacted by Hollard Insurance.

https://bit.ly/2u8Tcpw

To end off, Yes Hollard. We received your email advising us to take legal action should we not be happy with the outcome and the steps to do so. As you wish…






Hollard Insurance
Hollard Insurance's reply17 Nov 2021, 11:33
Official
 
Hello Mr. Botha 

We acknowledge your comments and regret the inconvenience this has been caused to you. We understand that this is a difficult and stressful time. 

As you are aware, we have investigated and communicated in detail with you and  your broker and addressed all of your concerns relating to the claim. 

Please refer to the various escalation channels provided to you in our previous communication. 
 
If you have any further queries regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us on *** or you may send an email to *** 

Kind Regards,
Customer Resolution Team 
jJ
jpbotha J's update18 Nov 2021, 08:53
Reviewer Update
Good morning,

You have not communicated in detail with me. I received no phone calls or communication regarding the report. You’re welcome to confirm this by checking your recordings. My broker sent me the email whereby Hollard Insurance rejects the claim.

Your feedback below from the email received: (copy - paste)


  • Substandard quality installation of paving – pavers are sliding downhill – defective workmanship.
  • No sleeper beams supporting paving – defective design, defective construction.
  • Inadequate / defective compaction of backfill supporting paving (policy exclusion)
  • No specific event caused the paving to fail – not an insured peril.
  • Collapse of the retaining wall did not cause the remaining paving to fail or move (except at the edge of failure with the wall)

So, if i understand this correctly. Based on the reasons behind your rejections, surely the broker (Sapcor or yourselves) would have sent someone like Standard Bank did to evaluate our property before quoting to cover me right?

Based on all the reasons Hollard Insurance has pointed out, Hollard Insurance still chose to offer me cover yet these would have been your findings if you sent somebody out to evaluate our property?

Standard Bank never reported this, they were happy to offer cover based on the valuation they did on our property.

If these were your findings, how come Hollard Insurance didn’t notify me of the above before before we accepted your cover and not Standard Bank’s cover? Yet, you were happy to charge me the premium for a R 7.276m home…..and continue to do so even-though i have no ideal whether i’m actually covered for anything?

I trust Hollard Insurance will have no problem providing me with the following as requested by our legal team.:

1. Detailed Photo’s of the inspection areas where the team you sent out physically lifted our paving at the damaged areas to assess…..

a). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the Garage Entrance.
b). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the stairs going towards the pool entrance.
c). Paving area lifted and inspected where the paving is sagging on various areas of the driveway.

2. The official Lab results of the Sample Tests / Compaction Reports of the backfill and where you had this tested claiming your assumption that it was defective.

3. 12 months Weather Report leading to the event of loss that the excessive rains wasn’t a contributing factor to the water damages suffered to the paving or the wall.

And no…. You have not addressed our concerns in the least.

Thanks for all who have been following this post, sharing it far and wide, the phone calls, emails and support has been much appreciated.

I’l update this post again later this week.




jJ
jpbotha J's update26 Nov 2021, 12:51
Reviewer Update
So another week has passed and we are yet to hear from Hollard Insurance… why is it so hard for you supply us with these results?

You should have them on file? Again, please supply is with the following:

1. Detailed Photo’s of the inspection areas where the team you sent out physically lifted our paving at the damaged areas to assess…..

a). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the Garage Entrance.
b). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the stairs going towards the pool entrance.
c). Paving area lifted and inspected where the paving is sagging on various areas of the driveway.

2. The official Lab results of the Sample Tests / Compaction Reports of the backfill and where you had this tested claiming your assumption that it was defective.

3. 12 months Weather Report leading to the event of loss that the excessive rains wasn’t a contributing factor to the water damages suffered to the paving or the wall.

Tina (Customer Care), you said you would get back to me as you would take up this matter with Management… i have not heard back from you?

1000’s of people are following this post and Hollard Insurance couldn’t bet bothered to get back to us? This is shocking service from an Insurance Provider we’ve been loyal to for 9 + years.

jJ
jpbotha J's update28 Nov 2021, 08:58
Reviewer Update
Tina (Customer Care), I received your email stating that Hollard once again turns down our claim. What I don’t understand is that you are not responding on my request mentioned below, this is my 3rd request for Hollard to supply us with the following:

1. Detailed Photo’s of the inspection areas where the team you sent out physically lifted our paving at the damaged areas to assess…..

a). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the Garage Entrance.
b). Paving area lifted and inspected in front of the stairs going towards the pool entrance.
c). Paving area lifted and inspected where the paving is sagging on various areas of the driveway.

2. The official Lab results of the Sample Tests / Compaction Reports of the backfill and where you had this tested claiming your assumption that it was defective.

3. 12 months Weather Report leading to the event of loss that the excessive rains wasn’t a contributing factor to the water damages suffered to the paving or the wall.