The clean-up from the recent Auckland flood, and now Cyclone Gabrielle, continues. One of our own staff, Kelly, and her family were hit particularly hard and lost virtually everything they owned. We were able to help them with condition survey reporting for insurance purposes, and they are now moving forward and getting their lives back together. We spoke to Kelly about the experience.
“The Auckland flood on Friday 27 January 2023 hit us worse than we had anticipated it would …
Our rental house was situated in a flood zone area, and although we knew it would be affected, we did not anticipate the extent to which it hit. By the time I got home from work that day, the water was already lapping at our ranchslider. We knew we had to act quickly and evacuate, leaving with only the clothes we were wearing.
When we returned on Saturday morning, the damage that we were left with shocked us. We had lost everything: all our contents, a car, a ute and my husband’s work equipment. We stood there looking at the disaster zone not knowing where to go to from here. The water had inundated the entire house, toppled over heavy appliances, and tossed furniture around like it was featherweight.
I contacted one of our Directors, who met us on site (even though it was a public holiday) and confirmed that our house was uninhabitable. He arranged for two building surveyors to enter our home to take photos of all the contents, in and around the property, and prepare a condition report to attach to our insurance claim.
By this stage the contamination was evident. The moss and mould had taken up residence in our house and inside both vehicles. Because the contamination was so bad, I was happy to see that the two building surveyors were dressed in protective clothing and wore breathing apparatuses for their own safety.
The report that was produced proved extremely valuable when completing our insurance claim. Given the traumatic experience we had just been through, to be able to remember all our belongings would have added more stress and anxiety to what we were already experiencing. We received the report the following day and we were able to complete our insurance claim using the photos from it in a timely manner.”
With insurers now handling huge workloads due to the scale of recent weather events, we’re hearing that some insurers are asking clients to substantiate their own claims, rather than sending assessors out. In these cases, just as in Kelly’s own experience, it pays to have a professional surveyor on your side to ensure the extent of the damage is accurately recorded. In Kelly’s case, having our surveyors assess the damage and provide a report to her insurer meant her claim was streamlined and resolved much more quickly than she might otherwise have expected. It also meant Kelly didn’t need to go through the trauma of revisiting her substantially damaged property to provide her own report, which she was very glad about.
For anyone facing a similar situation, professional advice is recommended. Find out more about our insurance investigation and damage assessment services, or contact us on prendos@prendos.co.nz, and we would be happy to assist where possible.