'Unreasonable delay': business compensated for lengthy excavator repairs

A complainant who lodged a claim for a damaged excavator will be compensated after a dispute ruling determined the insurer took an unreasonable amount of time to complete the repairs.

The company lodged a claim under its business insurance cover after one of its excavators fell into a river on May 19 last year.

QBE accepted the claim and had a repairer collect the excavator the following day. On July 1, the repairer informed the complainant that it was still waiting for the insurer’s authorisation to complete the repairs.

The claimant purchased a new excavator on July 23 to continue business operations as it was waiting for the damaged excavator to be repaired.

On August 3, the repairer told the complainant that parts needed for the remedy were being shipped from Japan and could take four to six weeks to arrive.

On August 18, the company lodged a claim for business interruption losses but this was denied by QBE, which said those losses were not coverable under the policy.

The complainant received the excavator on September 6 with incomplete repairs, including leaky pipes, inadequate painting, and a fuel leak.

The claimant fixed the fuel leak at its own cost. QBE did not admit fault regarding the repair and initially declined to repair the damaged components, before later agreeing to.

On October 12, the company lodged a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), and the excavator was returned to the repairer.

AFCA said “a lack of proper oversight in the repair process” led to the excavator being returned without appropriate recovery work completed.

The insurer authorised further work in December last year and returned the repaired excavator to the complainant in March this year.

The small company said it was under severe financial strain to cover costs associated with loan and insurance repayments, repairs and financing of a new machine and was “out of pocket over $105,000 in lost work”.

AFCA said it was not provided with a reasoned calculation of the alleged loss of work. Insurance schedules showed that the damaged excavator was on finance with an insured sum of $70,000.

AFCA noted that the complainant did not have the “applicable insurance” to cover the loss of work and noted its decision not to take out the “downtime cover” option provided in the policy.

It did note that numerous factors were responsible for the delayed repairs, including pandemic-related issues with overseas shipping.

QBE said the timeframe of its actions complied with the General Insurance Code of Practice and said inconsistent messaging from the repairer and poor communication between the claimant and its broker caused delayed responses.

AFCA determined that the insurer breached its obligation to complete the repairs within a reasonable timeframe, as communicated in its policy statement.

The ruling estimated that the repairs would have been completed in half the time if the claim had been “more closely overseen” and better communicated to the complainant.

AFCA said because there had been no detailed proof of loss, it was “impossible to make an accurate assessment”.

It required QBE to pay $5000 for the delays and a non-financial loss of $2000 for stress caused by the claim.

Click here for the full ruling.