Aami - Mia

[Trevor 57]

AAMI - Missing in Action:

We built our house in 1995, since then we have had our home and contents with AAMI, we have also had our car since before then and recently we insured our caravan with them. When our kids first bought their cars we got them insured with AAMI.

Well, it is all about to change.

The north-west side corner of our 6 metre by 6 metre garage had subsided into the ground by about 30mm over time causing the wall the lean over towards our neighbour’s house, it caused cracking in the brick work and caused the plaster ceiling inside the garage to fall. This is what alerted us that there was a problem, we couldn’t see the wall or the brick work from the inside of our garage and the affected wall is on the boundary with our neighbours.

After the plaster fell we got an engineer in to work out what was going on, he investigated the problem and found that when our next door neighbour built their house with A V Jennings about 12 months after ours the plumbers dug a 700 mm deep trench along side our garage footings to put in a gas main. Over time the disturbed ground has dried at a different rate to the ground around it and subsequently this has under-mined our garage footings. A written engineers report supported this.

We lodged a claim with AAMI which they subsequently rejected as the wording in our policy states that we are not covered for “ground movement”. I believe that the “ground movement” they are referring to is a ‘nature thing’ and not a ‘man made’ thing, but AAMI are going down the ground movement is ground movement line so they don’t have to pay the claim. I think they are feeling the pinch a bit at the moment.

Anyway they have lost all my business when the policies are due for renewal and I would warn everyone else about using AAMI and any company that falls under Suncorp (AAMI’s parent company), read your policies well.

[anto]

fair call mate, name and shame.

[SEZ213]

I'd be going back to the builder of your neighbours place, with engineers report in hand. Following that, I'd be ringing AAMI and asking to speak to someone in charge...because it doesn't sound like you should be paying for the repairs at all...

[Trevor 57]

The builder was A V Jennings, they are no longer in my town, plus it was 15 years ago. I have spoken up the tree in AAMI to no avail, I will be lodging an official complaint with them, I will also be going to the Finacial Ombudsman.

In my opinion this is a crap decision on their behalf, they are in risk managment mode at the moment and are trying to reduce the financial impact of recent natural diasters, although when I put that to them, they went on the defensive.

[SEZ213]

The only other option may be council - the building inspector would have signed it all off as okay, when clearly it wasn't. That may be your only other avenue if AAMI are going to be boneheads about it.

[rag top]

I went through a similar thing with NRMA. Builder's quotes were $40k to fix properly or $7k to pin it. I ended up fixing it myself (thankfully, wife's uncle was a building engineer who provided advise) for approx $2k.

Insurance wouldn't cover it - due to the drought, movement is not covered.

[Kryton]

Why cant your neighbors insurance pay for it - the neighbor indirectly did the damage - let them foot the bill.

[SEZ213]

Originally Posted by davway

Why cant your neighbors insurance pay for it - the neighbor indirectly did the damage - let them foot the bill.

End of the day, a building inspector signs off on all erections - whoever built their house should be held responsible. Statute of limitations on building notwithstanding, I would pinpoint AV Jennings, and the building inspector that signed off that everything was okay.

It's not really the neighbours fault in this instance, and it could just make things very messy and unpleasant for Trev.

[rag top]

Originally Posted by davway

Why cant your neighbors insurance pay for it - the neighbor indirectly did the damage - let them foot the bill.

If the damage was done 15 years ago, should be able to. But if the damage occurred 15 years after the work was done makes it a little difficult.

[fordomatic]

mate stuff waiting until your policies are due to run out. change now and you get a refund on what you haven't used. no way i would be staying with them at all if that happened to me.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Makes you wonder why we bother insuring doesnt it just....

Give them a hard time, but I dont like your luck if its documented in their policy.

[stang65]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

mate stuff waiting until your policies are due to run out. change now and you get a refund on what you haven't used. no way i would be staying with them at all if that happened to me.

Bad advice he has more chance of them paying if he is a customer if he leaves, so does his leverage. There should be an insurance ombudsman get in contact with them, they will tell you if AAMI are within their rights, then look to see if there is a building Association that deals with these matters or even vcat tribunal.

[irish2]

I don't see this as an insurance problem. It is a civil case with whoever dug a trench within a 45 deg pitch of the footing for the shed. Work that causes structural defects carries a 25 year guarantee. If you can find who performed the work (Not AV Jenings the actual person/company) the BSA may be your friend.

[MAD]

Why wait for renewal? I'd be leaving now, and letting them know it.

[fakegt]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

AAMI - Missing in Action:

We built our house in 1995, since then we have had our home and contents with AAMI, we have also had our car since before then and recently we insured our caravan with them. When our kids first bought their cars we got them insured with AAMI.

Well, it is all about to change.

The north-west side corner of our 6 metre by 6 metre garage had subsided into the ground by about 30mm over time causing the wall the lean over towards our neighbour’s house, it caused cracking in the brick work and caused the plaster ceiling inside the garage to fall. This is what alerted us that there was a problem, we couldn’t see the wall or the brick work from the inside of our garage and the affected wall is on the boundary with our neighbours.

After the plaster fell we got an engineer in to work out what was going on, he investigated the problem and found that when our next door neighbour built their house with A V Jennings about 12 months after ours the plumbers dug a 700 mm deep trench along side our garage footings to put in a gas main. Over time the disturbed ground has dried at a different rate to the ground around it and subsequently this has under-mined our garage footings. A written engineers report supported this.

We lodged a claim with AAMI which they subsequently rejected as the wording in our policy states that we are not covered for “ground movement”. I believe that the “ground movement” they are referring to is a ‘nature thing’ and not a ‘man made’ thing, but AAMI are going down the ground movement is ground movement line so they don’t have to pay the claim. I think they are feeling the pinch a bit at the moment.

Anyway they have lost all my business when the policies are due for renewal and I would warn everyone else about using AAMI and any company that falls under Suncorp (AAMI’s parent company), read your policies well.

I'm with irish2 on this one. It is the builder of your neighbours house who would of caused the problems. If he undermined your foundations(ie, dug a trench paralell with yours and deeper) they and the contractor involved are at fault. The building inspector would not know of any of this as they only inspect works in stages, Foundations, sub floor, frame and completion in most cases. They would of only inspected the gas line trench if you had made a complaint at the time and issued a stop work notice. If its a line that goes from the street to the Gas Meter, it may have been dug by the Gas company involved(or its contractor) and you may have a claim against them, IF you can prove it of course.
Look into a company called "Uretek" who can do some pretty amazing things to fix the problem without digging up half the yard.
Good luck with it,
Cheers, Dave

[mad-xa]

mate i had a friend who had her tarago van insured with them she had a littlely and four older kids and done a lot of community aid one day while helping a disabled guy do his shopping some one stole her van it took aami 6 weeks to pay her and they rang her daily with accusations that she had stole it herself and they wanted an investigation into her movements and threats that they where going to send her to jail so no i would tell them to stick it in there a@$# after you get them to pay...

[stevz]

Originally Posted by Sezzy

End of the day, a building inspector signs off on all erections

[SEZ213]

Originally Posted by stevz

I knew someone would get a laugh...it just took a little longer than I expected...

[JC]

Subsidence is subsidence, no matter how caused. If (as in this case) it is man made, you need to sue the man who made it. Changin insurance companies won't alter the result - no insurance company I know of will cover subsidence (and I used to work in the industry a few moons ago)

[xisled]

This line is in most insurance contracts. Does not matter if your with AAMI, RACV, NRMA or who ever you may be insured with. They will exclude any sort of soil movement. The reason why is because of Australia's climate being hot.

What you insurance policy will cover your for is a thing called an insured event. Most insurance companies will be the same. Now soil movement is not an insured event. Des not matter if it is from a man made hole or from a natural thing they will not cover it.

The reason I know this, because I used to work at AAMI and did home and motor claims. If you are not happy with the outcome go to the AAMI internal dispute resolution service (called CAS) if you are not happy with there out come, then I would take it to the insurance ombudsmen. One thing with AAMI tho, they are very good at making decisions and are usually correct.

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.../whichType/org

[mad-xa]

One thing with AAMI tho, they are very good at making decisions and are usually correct...
yea and like was it the rain falling from the sky that flooded your house or the water swelling from the gutters,river,creek that caused you to loose everything... WHAT A LOAD

[Ratmac]

Does anyone read there insurance policy any more ?
Would you buy a microwave and then complain because it's not a television ?
Insurance will not cover earth movement. Even if you don't read the whole policy, at least read the defined events that your policy covers you for, that will give you an idea of what you CAN claim.
It sucks what happened but it happens quite a lot (im in the industry but don't work for AAMI) and will never be covered as its not a defined events and most policies will specifically exclude earth movement of any kind except for earthquake for some companies.

The correct procedure from here is to not rant and rave, but to go through there internal dispute resolution procedure and if they still uphold the denial then go to the financial ombudsman service.
I don't like your chances but the most efficient way is to follow procedure, ringing up and yelling at the consultant or manager is not going to change the info they have been provided by an Engineer.
At the end of the day its not personal its just what the policy said, and from what I have heard they have made the right decision according to the policy wording which you choose.

Good luck with getting your house rectified though.

[fat4D]

AAMI are the most useless bunch of pencil pushers out there... ive had my issues and no longer have anything to do with them

[xisled]

Originally Posted by mad-xa

One thing with AAMI tho, they are very good at making decisions and are usually correct...
yea and like was it the rain falling from the sky that flooded your house or the water swelling from the gutters,river,creek that caused you to loose everything... WHAT A LOAD

You just missed the whole point of that.

Most people that go up against AAMI, once they have made a decision not in the customers favor and take it to the ombudsmen loose, because AAMI back up everything with professional reports.

I am not talking about the decisions they make for the actual customer, I am talking about once it goes to the ombudsmen

[jaydee]

Sorry, am I missing something? You are insured and pay your premiums every year and then you put in a claim and expect them to honour it? Are you crazy? Just ask the people in Qld after the floods.
Mate, hope you can come to some sort of resolution with the builders, good luck.

[SB076]

Have you thought about contacting HIA, they may be able to offer advice. I know someone awhile ago that built a home and they had a lot of faults (which only became evident a reasonable time after they moved in. The builder no longer existed, they went to HIA and they fixed all issues (at no cost to the owner)

[irish2]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Sorry, am I missing something? You are insured and pay your premiums every year and then you put in a claim and expect them to honour it? Are you crazy? Just ask the people in Qld after the floods.
Mate, hope you can come to some sort of resolution with the builders, good luck.

If you are not insured for it then you are not insured for it. I can't ring up and demand my vehicle be fixed because I have third party property only. "I didn't read all the fine print so just hurry and fix my car already". Any insurance policy I have read has been very straight foward in stating what is not covered.

[irish2]

Originally Posted by SB076

Have you thought about contacting HIA, they may be able to offer advice. I know someone awhile ago that built a home and they had a lot of faults (which only became evident a reasonable time after they moved in. The builder no longer existed, they went to HIA and they fixed all issues (at no cost to the owner)

The BSA does this. They will pay for dodgy workmanship and then chase the workers who caused it and charge them a set rate of "penalty units". The number of penalty units is usually set down in the state regulation for the work being performed. In this case it would be the 'Plumbing and drainage Regulation'.

[XDV800]

Insurers don't insure shoddy workmanship. The contracted installers of the service will likely be responsible for rectifying this.
Was the dig conducted within a metre of your foundation?

[irish2]

Originally Posted by yzfr101

Insurers don't insure shoddy workmanship. The contracted installers of the service will likely be responsible for rectifying this.
Was the dig conducted within a metre of your foundation?

A meter is not a good guide. The rule is; the base of the trench must not be within a 45 deg plane of the base of the footing of any structure.