Lessons learnt

Multi-million dollar homes unlikely to receive insurance payouts after devastating storm

Lesson for me is to always check the insurance product disclosure statement.

Whats your lesson?

 

Waterfront property is over rated.

 

Indeed

 

Seems like the insurance companies have been flooded with claims, shame that they're not keeping these beachfront guys afloat.

 

Apparently you can catch dinner too
Link on the bottom of the article
Sydney man catches fish from balcony during storm surge

 

I suspect there might be an opportunity to buy a house on the second line without water views. Soon enough it will be first line overlooking the ocean .

 

On a serious note I do feel for the owners who may loose everything. Insurance company lawyers will come up with some kind of excuse to not pay the claims...

 

I heard over the radio that 2 out of the 8 houses on that beach front were due for auction in a couple of weeks.

 

If they dont want to pay, either they will leave their PDS open to interpretation or they will always find excuses or both. Trust me they are smarter than you think and we live in a capitalist country where the British common law can be interpreted in favour of whoever has more money

The best option is for all those people to join forces, hire a good lawyer and smash them in court

 

Don't think the lawyers will have to look very hard, it's clearly written in the PDS that you receive as part of the policy, if you were stupid enough to buy a house in that location and not insure it against acts of the sea by paying the extra then that's 100% on you. It's the same as getting a 3rd party car insurance policy and not paying for fire and theft and then not being able to claim when the car gets stolen.

It's sad they've quite possibly lost their homes and the inconvenience of that but not having insurance for this type of event is not something they deserve a modicum of sympathy for because it's entirely their own fault. Any financial loss is entirely on them and was completely their fault.

If they had the insurance cover then they have nothing to worry about...

 

Wow! That's incredible!

From the TV and pics it appears that these houses weren't protected by rock bolders like the other properties to either side? Wonder what the story is there?

Something will have to be done now though even when the houses go to protect the road.

See ya's.

 

As @Tenex says above I wouldn't be so sure even if it was in the PDS.

 

Then the lawyers would have their work cut out a bit more at least but it's in just about every PDS, it's one of those categories they include for a very good reason and charge extra for.

 

Acts of the sea are rarely covered by insurance policies.
Marg

 

Acts of the sea are not covered. It is not an excuse they are coming up with.

On a different note, insurance companies can't come up with excuses like that to avoid paying claims. No one will do business with them if all they hear is excuses.

 

It's all good, the government is putting together a package so they - we - can bail them out.

 

Lesson to me is be careful where you buy if you want beachfront. Look at prior water events. Look at whether council has taken a coordinated approach to protect. Gold Coast is a great example in this regard. Now has an extensive protection and replenishment program in place and as a result held up really well in recent days.

Check and carefully negotiate any insurance policy. And if you are really crafty and legally inclined, engage with communications with council to help build a good basis for a future negligence claim if needed.

 

This is because you are not supposed to build your house in the middle of the ocean?

I read somewhere that these same residents rejected the proposed building of a sea wall last year by Council because it would affect "the look" of their beach?

I sympathise, but blind Freddy has known for decades that Collaroy beach would be washed away in a storm surge one day...

 

Don't buy at the top of the cycle.

 

Sadly this is true. I hate that we constantly want to bail people out for being idiots. Stop rewarding stupidity in society and maybe we might start to move forward again.

Hate this bolded part, it's not the council, state or federal governments job to protect your poorly designed house. If you want to build in what is well known to be an at risk location then you should pay, not fellow rates payers or tax payers, it should be 100% your responsibility. Funnily enough one of the articles mentioned one of the guys in the area who got the council approval and paid for the protection and as a result his house suffered only minor water damage...