Insurance war begins

31.3.2009
We now have a roof on the toilet and steps into the double donga! Simon has picked up his new brewing gear and relocated it into his future brewery in Lilydale and Edd and I have brought all the plasterboard , wood and insulation needed to fit out our Winter quarters.

On a more important note we have begun the battle with the insurance company. I was being fobbed off if I phoned and could not get all the equipment I needed into action enough to get any action happening. I had written a claim letter but it seemed to me that the details of the small print were not at all clear. Yesterday I drove to Al’s office in Warburton and started work with help from Al and all the resources of their Architects office.

I could not contact the man who is helping Steels Creek people directly but I sent him an E-mail and I did manage to talk to Tom who has offered us legal aid on a pro bono basis. He was very helpful but he thought he could write a better letter than mine. He did this but meanwhile the insurance company phoned my son, Al, and offered about $200,000 less than Tom thought we should claim. I told Tom and he was not impressed by this offhand verbal contact and sent off his claim letter in response. I feel I am in the midst of a battle but there is a time clause in our policy and I was getting extremely worried that the insurance company was just playing for time.

It is very stressful to have this sort of a fight after everything else but at least I expected it. Insurance people are always very willing to let you pay but rarely just give you what you insured for with out a fight.

On a bright note we had different food today. Our last B&B guests who stayed here the day of the fire visited us on Sunday and brought all kinds of good and useful food. We have a delicious cake bursting with fruit and zucchini slice. All stuff we can eat with out incurring plates to wash up. We are pretty low on water again as the 1000 litres we got from the council is almost gone.

Edd and I called into the relief station today for more information about grants. Apparently our case worker is meant to be telling us about things but josh had a letter this morning saying she was sick and no longer available. Looks like we have lost our case worker as well as everything else.