Property Insurance Claims

[margaret]

I have received an e-mail from my Insurance Agent informing me that the wall surrounding my property has collapsed due to the bad weather that the Alanya area has been having recently. He has also sent pictures which are quite alarming. I have had the same Agent and Insurance Company for the last 4/5 years and never had a claim but now I need to claim I am being told that because it is only "a wall which is not attached to the property" the insurance will not be paying to rectify the damage. The Company that I am insured with is Finanssigorta. I should be grateful if anyone could advise me as to what I may be able to do to try and solve this problem? I personally feel that this is a cop out for not having to pay but who knows, the rules probably change every week!!! I should also be grateful if anyone could advise me of who I could complain to and would it be worth my while? Many thanks. Margaret

 

[EVELYNNE]

hi Margaret
sorry to hear about your damage, I was just wondering if your property is on a site and therefore the wall is actually part of the communial area. If so you should go to your builder or management company tgo get it repaired.

I know on our site in Akbuk last winter we had storm damage to the communial walls and the builder had them repaired.

If this isn;t the case it seems you are going to have a long drawn out case against the insurance company. check the details of the SQM you insured and what was included before you start thoough.

Good luck

Eve x

 

[yalimart]

hi margaret, have you checked out your policy wordng ? it may be that this is excluded, in which case you would have to pay yourself.
You dont say if the wall borders another property, is it actually your wall ? did the insurance agent just happen to be passing ?

good luck

martin

 

[margaret]

Hi there, thank you both Eve and martin for your comments. Our gardener (who does not speak much english) asked the insurance agent to send us an e-mail showing the damage. No we do not live on a sitesi we stand alone so the responsibility of repairs will be down to us. In our Policy it says "standard finans residence coverage" fire, thunderbolt, explosion, strike, riot, smoke, storm, flood, internal flood, whitewash, landslide etc. I would have thought that landslide or storm would have covered it but accordingly not.

 

[Peter J]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I know just how you feel because the same happened to us two years ago. Our policy stated that we were covered for landslip, floods etc, but when it came down to it, our insurers said we weren’t covered because the Turkish language policy was the one that counted, regardless of what it said on the paperwork written in English which is all we had been given.
They also tried to claim that there were no adverse weather conditions in the area at the time of the collapse.
At that time there was apparently no Ombudsman overseeing insurance in Turkey, but there may be now. It is worth trying to contact your insurer’s head office and they may send a loss adjuster down and hopefully you will be able to recoup some of the costs. It didn’t work for us, but maybe it will for you.
Our property is on a sitesi and eventually the damaged walls were re-built by the co-operative though we had to contribute to the cost. Reinstating the gardens, lighting, balustrades, patios etc was totally down to us.
Good luck. You may not get anywhere, but at least you know you have tried.

Dee

 

[beachhhhhhh]

Doesn't it sicken you when Insurance companies will do anything to avoid paying up?

Mel.

 

[Martyn]

Well they are out to run a business, it's the clarity that needs to be sorted out. Both parties need to clearly know what is and isn't covered. It is so easy nowadays to do a 'one click' buy and 'agree' to the conditions that things get missed or misintepreted.

 

[beachhhhhhh]

So true.