How to Claim
Once the insurance policy is in place, the property owner must pay the premiums on a regular basis to maintain coverage. This is done usually as part of your levies in a Community Scheme. If a loss or damage occurs, the property owner must file a claim with the insurance company via their insurance broker, providing documentation (such as a damage report and quotation for repair) and evidence of the loss or damage in the form of photograph or report from a repairer.
The insurance company will then review the claim and determine whether the loss or damage is covered under the terms of the insurance policy. To ascertain whether your claim will be successful or not is often easy to establish. Insurance policies trigger when an event covered by the policy occurs. These events are sudden and once-off. For example, bursting pipes vs leaking pipes. Bursting is sudden, whereas leaking is not. Another example is a leaking roof. Once again, leaking is not sudden and is generally maintenance related – therefor no claim. If the claim is covered, the insurance company will often impose an excess and then provide compensation to the property owner in the form of a settlement or reimbursement for any repairs required. The claim might not be finically worthwhile, depending on the value of the loss and the excess associated.
ANGOR has a seamless, efficient online claims portal which owners and Trustees can access via the ANGOR app, at any time of the day or night. When you sign up with ANGOR, access to the portal is arranged for you. You then only need to download the app off the Google Playstore or the Apple Appstore. From there it is all just a quick click away. The App certainly takes the pain out of sitting in endless phone queues and telling a great many different people what the problem is in order to reach a solution.
To improve your experience, ANGOR has pre-loaded your specific policy and claims process for your Scheme, which will appear on your online portal, with all the up-to-date information you need to submit your claim.
Usually the owner of the section, or a Trustee for the Scheme, needs to be the one to log an insurance claim. However, if tenants find themselves in a bind with an absent landlord and an emergency on their hands, ANGOR’s team are there to assist. In an emergency where an owner is unavailable, either Rental Agents or Portfolio Specialists are there to ensure that problems can be dealt with swiftly.
An owner can despatch one of the Scheme-approved, quality-controlled contractors (the list is also on the app if applicable) to the property to assess the problem. Once the damage report, photos, and claims information have been logged, either online or via email channels, the repair process can commence. While this sounds like a long process it can have a very quick turnaround time, especially for smaller claims under R10 000. Over and above that amount the insurance company may send out an assessor to evaluate the nature and extent of the incident.
Depending on your Scheme’s policy, there is likely to be an excess amount that the owner will also be liable to cover at the time of repair. Please review the policy information on the ANGOR Online App.
Author: Intigor Risk Management Services
https://www.intigorrisk.com/