Recently I had a call from an angry owner who was to be charged thousands of dollars extra for repairs to his home by the insurer’s builder under the excuse that there was excessive rot in the home. After the inspection this is what I had to say:

Expert Opinion:

The purpose of the insurance policy is to reinstate insured to the same position he

would have before occurrence of the insured event.

This includes all necessary work including incidentals and must by reference include

replacement of any members required for reinstatement of the condition provided

only that items that could not have been reasonably foreseen are excluded.

If the reinstatement requires replacement of some existing members, then so be it.

The question then is whether rot in members could have reasonably been foreseen.

The answer is that the rot is clearly evident it could have been foreseen during a

competent inspection.

Furthermore given that the insured property is some decades old some rot to the

external timbers can be anticipated or inferred.

In my opinion, the builder’s claim is nothing more than unconscionable attempt to

extract further sums from the owner to cover his own negligence in failing to

ascertain the conditions before quoting and or to cover incompetent estimating.

In any case the claimed amount is extravagant when the true value of strengthening

the members by splicing or by metal brackets could be done for a few hundred

dollars at the most.

Recommendations:

The client should forward this claim to the insurer and demand that his dwelling be

fixed forthwith, without extra cost and to professional standard, failing which he may

lodge a claim with The Consume Affairs, The Insurance Ombudsman and VCAT.

As the work involves structural repair there should be a building permit.

This is what my client had to say:

Hi Jana,

Thankyou for the brilliant service your company has provided and I will definitely be recommending your services to others.

Can you please personally thank Branco for the quick turnaround of his report.

If the insurance company requires any further information or understanding of the report I will  have them contact Branco directly.

Thanks again.

I have never heard from them again ” Builder’s claim knocked out for six”