What Happened?
Auckland experienced severe flooding on the evening of Friday 27 January 2023 after a day of torrential rain. 24.5 centimetres fell on Auckland in 24 hours from Friday morning to Saturday morning. This is more than has fallen before going back through 60 years of records.
The Wairau Valley area where Glenfield Panelbeaters and Painters Ltd is located, experienced rapidly rising water on the evening of the 27th as nearby stormwater culverts in Diana Road were unable to cope with the extreme amount of rainfall.
The Damage
The premises of were flooded to a depth of 53 centimetres destroying the recently refurbished workshop and much of the machinery including the Spray Booth. The office, lunchroom and bathroom facilities were also damaged and until they were repaired the premises were without running water and operational toilet facilities. The wall linings and flooring needed to be replaced. The electrics and most of the machinery also needed to be replaced.
How long was it before Glenfield Panelbeaters and Paint were back working at full capacity?
It took until mid-June, 5 months after the flood before the business was fully recovered.
Building repairs were completed at the end of April. It took until mid-May for all machinery to be repaired or replaced.
Unfortunately, the one key skilled full time staff member left in April and had to be replaced. The owner had to run the business single handed for several months and this affected recovery. Able Business Claims was able to show that this was a consequence of the damage and therefore the reduced turnover was due ultimately to the damage.
What Insurance did Glenfield Panelbeaters and Painters Have?
They had an adequate level of both Material Damage and Business Interruption Insurance. The BI insurance included Wages cover which makes it possible for a business to keep its key staff during a period of interruption so it can get back to business as quickly as possible.
What happened Immediately after the flood?
The Insured, contacted Able Business Claims and requested our help. They received two small emergency payments in February, but this was not enough to cover ongoing expenses such as wages as well as the cost of replacing plant and repairing the building.
How Able Business Claims Helped
Able business Claims prepared a 1st Progress Claim for BI and submitted this 15 February. There was no response and no payment until we put pressure on the loss adjuster to respond. The client received their first BI payment 27 February a month after the flood.
Able Business Claims advised on the next steps to get a more adequate Material Damage payment although we were not originally employed to work on the MD claim. In early March ABC quoted the Fair Insurance code to the Insurer and a second BI Payment was made 13 March. This was followed by a full payment of around $275,000 for MD on 21 March. This is the type of pressure ABC must often place on loss adjusters and Insurers to get payments for our clients so that they can rebuild their businesses.
Able Business Claims prepared 3 reports over the life of this claim.
Able Business provided support and guidance during the rebuild. We made sure the client understood what cover they had. Because the business had wages cover it was important they kept the staff on as the interruption of replacing staff is best avoided. In this case the staff member did leave before the business reopened but they stayed long enough to help with the bulk of the reinstatement work.
We showed that the trend was much better than the Loss Adjuster believed as we reminded the Loss Adjuster and Insurer that adjustments needed to be made when comparing 2023 with 2022 and 2021 because of Covid.
Over the past 3 years we have helped many businesses get much fairer payments than initially offered as we always look carefully at what has been happening in the previous 5 years and we adjust for this. Covid has affected most businesses more deeply and for longer than was initially allowed for.
Success!
The result
The client received the Material Damage and Business Interruption payments, they were due. This allowed them to reinstate with confidence. The total BI Settlement came to nearly $200,000. Without this money the business would not have been able to rebuild. The Loss Adjusters initial estimate was for under $100,000.
Glenfield Panelbeaters and Painters Ltd are very happy with the service we have provided. They have been able to get back to business as usual having received a fair settlement, knowing they would have struggled without our support and guidance.