Beware of your insurer and policy

BEWARE

We want to share our experiences so that other people will not have to go through the problems we have. Read your insurance proposal carefully and document all communications. Our interactions with Allianz after the bushfires in January 2020 have not been good. We have run a horse riding and farm stay accommodation business for the last 17-18 years and have maintained insurance cover through our broker since that time. We have never had a claim. Our broker put the insurance with Allianz in 2013.

We are in our 70s and stayed to fight the fire. We managed to save our home but lost the barn, stables and accommodation which included probably $80 000 in saddles plus tools, horse equipment etc. We now have no income as a result of the damage.

We put a claim into Allianz and they did pay us for contents. Be very careful here because it quickly became apparent we were seriously underinsured on the contents part of the package.

Allianz are refusing to pay for the loss of the building which were insured for over $900 000. They have chosen to interpret certain clauses in a way that is favourable to them and much to our detriment. There were questions asked verbally that were not documented in any way and they are using these to our disadvantage. We have had to go to the insurance ombudsman and are awaiting a decision.

This has been incredibly stressful. We, like many other people, have had the year from hell and this situation is only compounding the problem. We paid our insurance premiums in good faith expecting that we would be covered in the case of catastrophic loss. Now we have no income, no business and no way to solve the problem unless Allianz comes to the party and does the right thing.

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