Nov 2010 Financial News

Bajan policyholders begin to make claims

Nov 06, 2010

DOZENS of claims are coming in from householders reeling from the ravages of Tropical Storm Tomas, but the insurance industry in Barbados says the damage is not major and will hardly put them in a tailspin.

The Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd (ICBL) has already received about 150 claims that should translate to just over Bds$1 million in payouts while approximately 200 claims, most of them from householders and commercial entities such as hotels, have been made to United Insurance that will cost them under Bds$5 million.

Chief executive officer of ICBL, Wismar Greaves, told the Weekend Nation his company’s payouts have not been substantial.

“This was a minimal storm. It’s a small event in terms of insurance. The lesson to be learned though is that people need to pay more attention to asphalt shingles and the roofing, galvanised and Permaclad, to have them nailed down well, especially at the end of the galvanise, so that when the winds blow they wouldn’t be ripped away so easily.

“There were hits here and there. There was no specific parish the claims came from—it was islandwide,” he said.

Greaves said ICBL were keen to make payments to their policyholders as soon as possible.

“We are in the process of doing interim payments. I expect a few more claims will come in, but that is to be expected. We are in the business of insurance, so when events like this happen we have to be ready to pay.
“We want to move ahead and make our policyholders happy. When we have to indemnify them, we are pleased to do that,” Greaves said.

Tomas ripped off dozens of rooftops and galvanise sheets, but according to Greaves, had corrective maintenance measures been observed, the damage would have been much less.

“When you get winds like the ones we had trees could go down but not house roofs at those speeds. So many house roofs should not have come off,” he said.

Greaves, who is also managing director of ICBL, said he would like to see greater use of hurricane straps.

“They are inexpensive and come in handy,” he said.

ICBL had four teams across the island—East, West, North and South—surveying risks.

Claims manager of United Insurance, Chris Grosvenor, concurred with Greaves, mentioning that the majority of claims were not large as Tomas inflicted minimal damage.

“There may be one or two claims that might exceed Bds$20,000 but the majority seem to be under Bds$10,000. There will be exceptions but overall the damage to a large extent has been minor. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say our payout would be under Bds$5 million,” Grosvenor said.

Grosvenor held the common view that roof damage was exacerbated by the failure to observe proper maintenance standards.

“Maintenance is very important. A tropical storm with winds under 75 miles an hour should not have damaged so many roofs. You won’t have expected that a roof that was properly fixed should have blown off. You could lose shingles, have the odd leak here and there, but the entire roof structure should not come off,” he said.

Grosvenor added that Tomas would not be a headache for United Insurance on the domestic front, but would have more repercussions elsewhere in the region (Curacao, St Lucia, St Vincent), where the impact had been greater.

“We are a regional organisation so we are exposed much more than the average local company.

“If it was just Barbados that was hit, we wouldn’t be particularly bothered from a money point of view, but that is not the case,” he said, noting that United had offices in 13 territories.

Grosvenor said that there were many homes that had suffered damage but were not insured.

“Every house that has been damaged is not necessarily insured,” he added.

By Mike King Barbados Nation


Source:
Trinidad Express
Saturday November 6, 2010

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business/Bajan-policyholders-begin-to-make-claims-106809873.html