From earthquakes to storm damage, many homes, cars and businesses have experienced serious damage due to recent events. In turn, this has seen a major spike in insurance claims, with brokers, insurance companies and repairers alike being inundated with claims to resolve.
As we come out of lockdowns and with travel borders opening, the next stage of the pandemic has added another layer of complexity to this, placing additional pressure on the insurance industry. Whilst there is positivity in the air, returning to a new normal has resulted in an influx of enquiries from clients about how these changes may impact their claims. Returning to business combined with the shortage of building materials is another obstacle for the industry to overcome, with insurers and brokers primarily navigating through the delayed logistics and availabilities for parties to assess the damages caused by the recent events.
The recent weather events have caused significant damage and insurers are attending to all outstanding claims as quickly as possible. However, the high volumes of claims have unfortunately resulted in a longer than normal response time. Urgent claims continue to be prioritised.
The insurance industry is experiencing longer than normal response times relating to claims. This includes assessors, engineers and repairers who all have a backlog of claims due to the recent significant weather events, as well as works that were put on hold due to lockdowns. Our Claims team continues to lodge claims promptly; however please expect longer than usual response times as insurers, assessors and repairers responses are currently delayed.
Here are some tips you can do in the meantime:
- If the damage to the property can be easily fixed (e.g. cracked tile or broken window), instead of obtaining a quote or waiting for the insurers appointed repairer, we encourage you to arrange repairs with a repairer of your choice. Please submit the invoice to our office so we can lodge the claim with the insurer (subject to normal policy conditions and exclusions).
- If the damage is more significant, please feel free to obtain a quote from a repairer of your choice instead of requesting that the insurer appoint one of their panel repairers or assessors.
- If there are any safety issues, as always we encourage you to take the necessary steps to address the damage as soon as possible and inform the claims team at your earliest convenience
We sympathise that this is a very difficult and uncertain time for many of our clients. Rest assured that our claims team are doing their utmost to resolve your claims and attend to enquiries as soon as possible.
We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through this challenging time together.
For any enquiries, please get in touch with our office below:
T: 1300 424 627
E: claims@whitbread.com.au
