Durban - Insurance companies told The Mercury yesterday they were extremely busy dealing with complaints and claims in the wake of the heavy storms to hit the province, mainly regarding damage to property and buildings.
Santam said it had been inundated with claims: “At midday today (yesterday), we had already received a significant influx of claims and all indications are that we will exceed 500 claims,” said Fanus Coetzee, head of adjustment services.
Most of the claims were for damage to residential and commercial property, and damaged and wrecked vehicles.
Michele Peach, head of short-term operations at Hollard, had similar feedback, saying they had been receiving complaints about damage to buildings.
She could not provide details on the number of complaints they had already received.
In spite of high volumes of claims, both said they had not yet encountered any service backlogs.
“The turnaround time is determined by the reach and severity of the weather-related catastrophe,” said Coetzee.
“We can draw on resources and assist in the affected areas to ensure that we can turn around the claims as quickly as possible.”
Peach said: “We are currently managing claims as per our normal service times and are not experiencing any backlogs.”
Both said they were confident of dealing with potential fraudulent claims.
Other insurance companies that The Mercury approached said that they were unable to comment, or that they would be unable to respond in time.
THE MERCURY