Be Careful When Choosing an Insurance Company and Get a Broker Who Cares!

After our big storms in Durban I suffered storm damage to my outbuilding and soil behind the building washed away causing sink holes which I filled in not realising the significance of this.

A few weeks later (I had been away) my tenants informed me that new cracks had suddenly opened up on the building. I then put 2 and 2 together and linked the sink holes to the cracks. I put in an insurance claim with my brokers, HW Brokers who I have been with for about 25 or more years.

They sent an assessor and I told him that the building had had a few minor old cracks which were filled and painted over the last time that it was painted which was quite a few years ago. There were no new cracks for many, many years until after the storm when the sink holes appeared followed by new, serious looking cracks .These cracks are obviously not old cracks. I also showed him the nearby tree. The Assessor advised that it appeared that the damage to the building might be as a result of a combination of factors (being possible tree roots and the sink holes) and he felt that a Structural Engineer should ascertain the exact cause.

The "structural engineer" arrived to do the inspection. He couldn't communicate effectively in English and I asked him if he was in fact an engineer. He rep**** that he was not an engineer but none-the-less he prepared the report on the damage. ( He did not even bother to dig around the foundation where the cracks were to examine the possible cause).

I received a rejection letter stating that the cracks had been caused by large tree roots.

Had these results been produced by a structural engineer, I would have accepted the rejection letter. However they were based on an unqualified person's opinion, not on fact.

Now (Friday afternoon) Infiniti Insurance, through HW Brokers, have suspended all cover on the buildings, subsidence & landslip and liability until such time as the repairs have been attended to.

Not only have they suspended cover on my outbuilding (repairs are nearly done - final completion of repairs on Monday and Tuesday) but also on my house without even inspecting my house!!! So I'm left without cover for the weekend.

My thoughts on that are; How can they approve of an unqualified person having the final say I am horrified that cover has been suspended on MY HOUSE when the outbuilding had the problem Disgusting service to leave me with no cover AT ALL for the weekend or until I can arrange cover elsewhere Shocking business practice to not give me any advance notice of their intentions