When the carport at Osborne Taukobong’s home in Danville, Pretoria, was wrecked in a hailstorm in December, he lodged a claim on his homeowners’ insurance policy and assumed it would be a simple process. But it turned out to be quite a battle. Wendy Knowler took up the case..

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I think it’s fair to say that the process of lodging a claim on your homeowners’ insurance policy for storm-related damage is not for sissies.

It certainly proved to be an ordeal for Osborne Taukobong after a Pretoria hailstorm left his carport in a very sorry state.

So he lodged a claim with PSG Insure – the policy is underwritten by Santam – and things got off to a good start.

A service provider was assigned to come to his home to assess the damage.

He received a call from that assessor, who asked about the source of the carport and then promised to submit a quote to the insurer.

“That was the last time I heard from him,” Taukobong said.

Carport provider number two was then assigned.

He failed to turn up at the agreed time, and there was no further communication until this year, when he was again assigned to assess the damage.

“He came to the house and asked to take pictures because, he said, the insurer may want to see if the house is well maintained.”

Insurers often reject storm damage claims on the grounds that a lack of home maintenance caused the damage, rather than the storm.

Eventually, he was sent an offer, which he signed. “The agreement was that the provider would come and repair the damaged carport cover, but a few days later, payment was made into my account – the amount was less than my R3 000 excess payable.

That’s when he noticed that he was being penalised with an extra excess based on a patch of “multi-claims” dating back many years.

That payment was reversed after Taukobong’s protests, but, he told me, “the claim appears to be in limbo now”: “Please help.”

I asked PSG Insure what needed to happen in order for the matter to be finalised. Could PSG not pay the service provider to do the necessary repair, in so doing putting Taukobong back in the position he was before the storm? That’s essentially the point of insurance.

I also queried the inflated excess amount. How long is he expected to be penalised for a poor claims ratio of many years ago?

Responding, PSG Insure CEO Cedric Masondo said the delay was due to Taukobong’s concern about the “multi-claimant excess”, which was applied following historical claims at his current address.

“Since he disputed this, we escalated the matter to the insurer for a fair review,” Masondo said.

“We successfully negotiated with the insurer to remove the multi-claimant excess, allowing repairs to proceed.”