The Watchdog is both blind and toothless. ***/17D

The industry "watchdog" is blind, toothless and on the end of a leash held by the insurers. We lodged a claim with Standard Bank Insurance Brokers for a collapsed boundary wall which they refused to accept. This seems to be normal routine for SBI - if you are insured with them you are not covered ! They claim that the wall was not built to regulations. They know that the normal man in the street doesn't know the regulations nor will they go thru the extreme hassles of contesting the ruling. Hence the creation of the Ombudsman. Don't hold your breath... I am a mechanical engineer and I called in civil engineers to asses the wall after it had collapsed so they were able to see the actual construction of the wall. The were on site three times. Their conclusion was that, although the wall was built prior to the promulgation of the current regulations, the wall did in fact comply. It was also clear that the "assessor" had made serious errors in her report which is what SBI based their rejection on. Interestingly the person that signed the assessment was never on site. Their report refers to a collapsed wall, but the wall only collapsed four months after the assessment. A wall falls into the category of a retaining wall if it retains soil of 1.8m or more. So the assessor report said it retained 1.8m of soil (surprise !), when in fact it retained only 1m of soil. The report said it was 2.3m high which is correct. But then according to them the height of the wall was only 0.5m or knee high on the inside. Their own pictures show that the wall was at least shoulder high ! The wall comp**** with retaining wall regulations although it was not a retaining wall ! I sent all the relevant documents to SBI who confirmed rejection of the claim. So all the reports were submitted to OSTI. They sent them to SBI who rep**** that the wall doesn't comply with regulations. They forwarded SBI's response to me. I sent all the relevant info and comments to OSTI again who forwarded it to SBI for comments. They rep**** again that the claim was rejected because the wall didn't comply and there was excavation (which hadn't been mentioned before) which is not covered. OSTI then rep**** to me that they agreed with SBI and that the file was closed. Really ?? Both SBI and OSTI simply ignored the facts. I invited both to come and see the rebuilt wall (at an own cost of R200 000) and of course they refused. All OSTI did was be a post conduit between SBI and us and made no meaningful contribution whatsoever. So approaching OSTI to resolving complaints "fairly, efficiently and impartially " is not going to happen and is a waste of time. I don't know if they even read the documents I submitted. If they did then they are guilty of incompetence, ignorance or collusion - or all three. Really sad ! What is the man in the street supposed to do to get fairly treated ? The insurers know that ordinary folk cannot afford the legal fees, time and battles to get a fair deal, so they reject claims out of hand never intending to honor them when they enter into the insurance contract. And the industry "policeman" is a mouse.