Nedbank Insurance does not honour legitimate claims

Claim number C***

To whom this may concern;

On Monday the 27th of March, I put in a claim regarding a burst geyser at our residence. We had just got back from holiday, and didn’t know what quite to expect.

The initial service from Nedbank Insurance was prompt and pleasant. I was sent a claim number followed by contact from a plumbing company. The plumbers said that they had one job to do and then the would attend our residence shortly. This was at approximately 11h00.

After a number of calls to find out when they were coming, the plumbers showed up at 17h30. They had no geyser or other equivalent to perform any sort of repairs. Instead, they said they were here to assess the damage. After confirming that the geyser was burst, they said that they would be back the following day to perform the repairs.

The following day the plumbers showed up at 11h30. I showed the plumber where the geyser was, and cautioned him about walking on the flat roof as he was rather heavy and there was no need to be walking on the roof as the geyser was right at the edge of the roof. The plumber the borrowed a 13mm spanner as he didn’t have one.

I allowed the plumbers to get to work as I went inside the house. The next thing I noticed hot water flooding all over the roof. They drained the geyser on the roof instead of redirecting the water flow with a hose. A little while later, I heard a terrible commotion coming from the bedroom. There was thunderous banging coming from the roof. I immediately ran outside to find out what was going on. The plumber explained that he and his helper carried the geyser across the roof so they could throw the geyser off the roof! When I reminded him of what I told him earlier about the roof, and to be careful, he jokingly asked me if I could see the roof moving!

After some silence, I observed the plumber’s assistant just sitting on the roof. Apparently the plumber had to go and purchase copper pipe and fittings to complete the job. They continued to stomp around on the roof for no apparent reason.

After the plumbers had left, I noticed warm water dripping from the bathroom ceiling. As I made a hole to drain it, it came pouring out. The drywall ceiling was sagging and cracking. The cornice has also come loose from the ceiling.

The bedroom ceiling was dripping with water from around the light fittings and the whole ceiling was warping. It was raining at the time and water was continuing to come through the roof. The cornice also separated from the bedroom ceiling.

Close to bedtime my wife shouted urgently for me to come into the bedroom. The ceiling was absolutely covered with ants. I am not exaggerating when I say covered with ants. When I looked online to see what causes this to happen, it’s from ants being alerted to a new damp or wet area the wish to nest in. I then spent over an hour cleaning the bedroom ceiling and replacing the bedding.

From the start of this horrific event, I had been placing calls through to complain, as this things were happening. The details were being recorded and someone would get back to me, they never did! It was only almost a week later that I was told I had to email my complaint. Nedbank Insurance sent an assessor out to check the damage to the bathroom ceiling and Nedbank approved all the work to be done. When I asked them about the damage done by the plumbers, they sent another assessor out. The plumber also called and requested to enter my home and view the damage, which I promptly refused. I heard no feedback for weeks from Nedbank Insurance, so I tried placing a number of calls finally resulting in a call back. The person assigned to this complaint, Gugu Kunele, informed me that my roof was already leaking and not only were they not covering the damage done by the plumbers, but also refused to honour the claim they agreed to.