insurance pitfalls and blindspots

Some time ago I was told by an insurance broker to read the policy document very carefully because in his experience it was a case of "if it specifically states that an article is covered and the circumstances of that coverage are also specified then you are covered. Never assume anything because if coverage is not stated then none exists." As has been already said, if you are unsure of any particular possible event get clarification in writing.

Cheers Pop

nope

Honkeys right the PDS is the be all and end all, it IS in writing

it excludes stuff like no coveradge in the event of nuclear war and terrorism

if they havnr excluded it then its included

thats why they exclude obscure stuff like ive mentioned

no where in a PDS does it say when your covered only when you are NOT

Hi all, I'm not going to disagree here however my lifes experience with making claims from insurance companies is that their first and standard response is always- "you are not covered". Statistically a significant amount of people will drop a claim at the first negative response(which is why the companiies have this policy)whether or not they are covered. I think someone somewhere made a movie on this subject.doc.

I agree with oz doc, the insurance company will tell you what is covered, what is not mentioned they then can say is not covered when you attempt to make a claim.

They generally don't tell you what is not covered, only what is covered, if it's not specifically stated in writing then consider it is not covered and ask them more questions.

Maîneÿ . . .

"if it's not specifically stated in writing then consider it is not covered "

as i said they dont state anything thats covered only whats not

theres no question they can start by denying claims but at the end of the day the PDS

IS in WRITING and IS the be all and end all - all the stuff they have says refer to it

i think you will find any claim refected is mor on the interpretation of thre PDS

as an example the most common asked question is "am i covered off road"

my PDS specifically says i am not covered if i am outside australia

therfore i am covered offroad in Australia

BUT

i have to be not deliberatly damaging my vehicle

and i have to be legally entitled to be there
and not racing or partaking in time trials

Hi get outmore, I've even had an insurance company arguing against their own pds in an attempt to get out of an insurance claim(not car insurance). It was in their own printed black and white and they still wanted to argue and and argue. Only when I threatened legal action did they shut up and get out the cheque book.I get the feeling that insurance companies don't expect their clients to actually read the pds. I for one do.(not saying I totally understand all of it).doc.

I believe you will find they can and will argue the vehicle was used "off the road" and it is registered as a motor vehicle to be driven on the road, I know this by the experience of a neighbor.

You have to make sure it states the vehicle is covered when driven "anywhere" in Australia, not just on the designated roads of the nation.

Maîneÿ . . .

So if you have extras on a vehicle and haven't stated them under the policy to be covered, in case of a write off do you have the right to remove them?
We've just purchased a new car (Jeep Wrangler) and a few insurance companies don't even do agreed value, or not for what you actually paid (I suppose because some of it was stamp duty etc). We only have a few basic extras like factory 2" lift, bullbar and towbar straight up.

You're right in that if you do state the extras and the car is written off then you lose out big time, unless of course you've managed to insure it for a decent agreed value to account for that (you'd pay the price in the insurance premium though). But then again I guess it's the same if you sell that vehicle to a dealer, you won't get bugger all for the extras!

Hi Trevor,

Trap for the unwary, AAMI were happy to add about $8K of extras (Tyresmart, HF radio, UHF radio, cargo barrier, etc) with no increase in premium AND no increase in payout for a write off BUT, in the event of writeoff they got to keep all the extras!! I consequently told the bloke at AAMI to take all the extras off the list. Prior experience confirms this as I had a write off and could remove all the extras not specified but had to leave the ones on the policy even though they were in good working order.

As regards what's in and what's out, my business experience in negotiating large IT outsourcing deals was that if it's not in, it's out. Clients were always claiming that if it wasn't specifically excluded it must be in. All my contracts stated very clearly that if an item was not specified it was not included. If the client wanted to include something not specified, that could be done but at an additional cost. I always operate on this principle and seek clarification if the wording is unclear.

Hi Trevor

The law says that an insurer must 'clearly inform' you of the restrictions in the insurance policy before you enter into the contract. The insurer may have failed to clearly inform you of the policy's cover if:

They do not give you a copy of the policy document and the product disclosure statement or

The wording of the policy is unclear or ambiguous.

If this is the case, the insurer is penalised. The penalty is that the contract will have terms set by law (which are usually more generous and less restrictive than those in the policy document). That is to say, you may have the right to claim a greater amount than the contract allows, or to claim where the contract does not allow it.

So if it says you are covered anywhere you are legally entitled to be it means just that.

Cheers, The Landy

Yes We wanted to go down a back road from I think it was Barry to Kookynie
(spelling)?

The road had a closed notice on it which p.....d me off as had to go back to Leonora again after asking at the info centre.

Got back and lady was sitting in car with a man, who when we asked turned out to be the shire boss or whatever.

He said the road has been open for 3 days.

I said well why has it got Closed signs on it.

He got on phone and gave someone a rev up.

We went further down the highway and in another road only to get to the same road with the same signs. We did go down it and at the other end it also had a closed sign on it.

Where would we have been if we had an accident.

I hate to think and all because someone couldnt be bothered removing the signs.

Road was perfect had been graded and was nice and smooth.