Insurance claims for electrical damage

[Isetech]

We all talk rules, regs and registered contractors etc.

I have a question, an "insurance approved" contractor arrives at your property to assess and repair "all" the damage, surely that contractor must be a registered electrical contractor to work on the electrical installation. Surely the insurance company would require a COC once all the work is complete, especially if the house was completely submerged in water?

If the house was completely submerged in water, and the socket outlets are full of mud and water, would you replace the socket outlets or just leave them and wait for them to dry out?

If the DB was completely submerged in muddy water, would you be happy for the insurance if the insurance informed you that they will not be replacing the DB because it will dry out and they will just dust off the breakers?

All your ceiling fans were submerged in muddy water, would you be happy to leave them in place to dry out for future use?

As crazy as it sounds, this seems to be the solution for many people who have been flooded.

What it seems you are going to have to be careful of in following months, salvaged appliances and electronics equipment being sold off (hopefully as flood damaged).

Watching the manner in which insurance companies are handling their customers at this difficult time, is just what I expected.

For example an entire house was under water, the insurance approved contractors drops off 1 employee, to clean up the entire site, which include rubble removal, sand and silt. I would estimate at least 5 days with a 10 member team. the one person has been on site for 6 days already and still moving sand, resulting in the home owners having to clean up themselves.

A few tips for anyone taking out insurance, especially if you have purchased a house and not done any alterations.

1/ Have an assessor check the entire property and create a list of item that will "not" be covered. For example, your tar on the driveway apparently it has to be a certain thickness, my driveway is 3 mm too thin, claim rejected. Verify that every part of your building is covered. If your neighbour builds a wall, makes sure they have plans.

2/ Make sure your COC and is valid.

3/ Make sure your building plans are valid and up to date.

4/ The value of everything is correct and updated. This seems to be a common issue.

[skatingsparks]

I'm pretty sure none of the above items were designed by the manufacturers to be submerged in water.

I'm pretty sure if you contacted the Scnieder/Lear/ABB/Onesto/CBI and asked if there breakers were suitable for use after being soaked in water, they would say, er....No!

Therefore, strctly speaking they are no longer suitable for use.

Replace. Unless you point this out to the insurers, in writing, that you believe they are not good for use then I'd trust the meter readings and you're covered because you brought it to their attention.

[AndyD]

I've also butted heads with a loss adjuster over replacing flood damaged MCB's in a DB. Same story where he preferred that they were dried out and wiped clean and rather than replaced with new items. I stated my position that after submersion in water and given their poor IP rating it was a natural conclusion that polutants and debris had entered them and would adversely affect their lifespan and possibly their safe operation and having no feasible way of functionally testing them they should be replaced. He still refused to authorise their replacement so I requested he supplied us with a detailed scope of work and we just followed it and gave a CoC for the work we did whilst stating on it that the insurance company dictated the scope of the remedials.

Unfortunately the contractors hands are tied so just make sure you have a paperwork trail.

[Derlyn]

Unfortunately the contractors hands are tied so just make sure you have a paperwork trail.

Or better still, be like me and don't work for insurance companies, estate agents or transferring attorneys.
In any case, they take too long to pay.