Hi All,
I am not in the insurance industry but I deal with insurance matters on an almost daily basis. I have 3 golden rules when it comes to choosing insurance:
1. Read the PDS;
2. Read the PDS;
3. Read the PDS;
Different insurance companies provide very different cover for what often appears to be the same product. As an example, below are the definitions of "Storm" from popular insurer's PDS:
A storm has very strong winds and may also involve heavy rain, hail or snow. For example,
a cyclone. A storm is not just continuous bad weather on its own.
Yes
A storm causes loss or damage to your home or contents.
No
Loss or damage caused by:
•
rain or wind that enters your home through an opening that was not
made by the storm
•
power surge (but we may cover you if another insured event at your
home causes the power surge)
•
rain, hail or snow after it reaches the ground (but we may cover that
under the insured event ‘Flood’ as flood or water runoff).
A storm that happens during the first 72 hours from when we first cover
your home or contents (but we do cover you if you take out your policy
when you sign a contract to buy your home or we replace another
insurance policy).
Loss or damage to:
•
driveways, garden borders, paths, paving and playing surfaces
•
paint and external coatings of buildings when there is no structural
storm damage to other parts of your home
•
swimming pool and spa covers and liners that are more than 5 years old
•
free standing walls.
Anything that happens while you’re renovating your home (but we do cover
wind damage caused by the storm).
and:
9. Storm, rainwater or run-off
(Applicable whether you have buildings and/or
contents cover)
We will pay for loss or damage caused by storm, rainwater
or run-off.
“storm”
means violent wind (including cyclones and
tornadoes), thunderstorms and hail which may be
accompanied by rain or snow.
“rainwater”
means rain falling naturally from the sky onto
the buildings and/or ground.
“run-off”
means rainwater that has collected on or has
flowed across normally dry ground or has overflowed from
swimming pools or spas.
The second definition provides far greater cover than the first yet most people stop reading when they get to the $$$.
Insurance is only of value when you need to make a claim. There is no point having insurance that does not cover you when you need it.
Duncan
