Vero Landlord Insurance

Don't buy VERO property insurance – My partner has VERO insurance( a division of Suncorp) on a cottage and the tenants moved out recently. and we were going to move into it. Unfortunately we discovered water damage in the ceilings upon an outgoing inspection of the tenants (thanks guys) The tenants had been away overseas and got covid and were away for a month. We know the damage was recent as a property inspection was done in December just before they went away and nothing was listed by the Real estate agent and have we photographic evidence of the ceilings.

There was 16 days of rain and storms while they were away.

That's when it all went down hill when we made a claim with VERO.

Vero sent out an assessor who I later found out works as a contractor for their third party assessing and repairs company JLG.

When he turned up and he looked around the property and said to me said it was obviously" recent damage" and in storms tiles get lifted and rain comes in.

When JLG sent the report to Vero the it was written in a way that was very ambiguous relating damage in the laundry (an out building with Colourbond roof) with another problem because of the pitch of the roof relating it all together.

Totally not true as it the cottage has a Terracotta tiled roof and there was no damage in the room adjacent to it.

I spent literally days on the phone talking to Vero to get a resolution as my partner ended up in tears after talking to one of their representatives.

Everything takes a minimum 24hrs to respond or if you dispute something they state 5- 7 days to respond via their team.

I requested a copy of the report supplied by JLG to VERO for my records and it was written very ambiguous methodology. I pointed out to several Vero representatives about conflictions in the report . Their reply is they take the word of "their EXPERTS" who write the reports.

For Instance - From 1% of the roof being damaged as per the report "states" there is damage in the entry, kitchen, lounge room and bedroom. You do the sums in a 80sqm property ???

We had the roof pressure cleaned in 2017 with any tiles with faults replaced as maintenance.

We have had the property for approx 10 years and no leaks and multiple inspections over the years with proof.

So this is what they say now_

"The roof on the house is terracotta roof tiles that have wear and tear issues from ageing and have bowed and chipped that can also allow water to ingress." We found no storm created openings and advise the damages may be related to "multiple events."

Emphasis on "may be related to multiple events"

VERO will only cover "one event" "and this is their out on the policy not to pay a claim.

Hmmm what happens in a storm when tiles get lifted and you are away for a month, can you state what day it happened ???

They will do anything not to pay a claim.

NB. After a long conversation today (1 hour) with a VERO " Customer Relations specialist" he told me with the facts from the report from JLG they will not approving the claim. I said where do we go from here, he offered to have an additional assessment done by one of "their "assessors but we are not prepared to get one done by someone they have on their books and will be declining it.

We are now in process of having to pay for an independent report done by a reputable roofing company and going to AFCA with our claim.

We had to pay a upfront excess to VERO of $750 on top of the cost of the insurance all for nothing !!!

BE WARNED !!!!!!!!

Disappointing and costly - STAY AWAY – Fixed term versus Periodic - landlords always ensure you have a fixed term lease in place. Although legislation for this industry recognises a periodic lease as current and binding, the landlord policy does not. I disputed this with AFCA unfortunately due the wording in the policy I was unsuccessful. I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. I found Vero to be unhelpful and unwaivering during what was a difficult time. I would never recommend Vero insurance, in fact after this incident I took my business elsewhere and got a better policy for 33% less of the cost of the Vero insurance.

Do not go with them – After being with them for years very disappointed the way claims were handled Not easy to deal with, costlier than other providers. Stay away from them, They will not make any claim easy,