Insurance does not cover "grid failure"

General Discussions
1

We knew it’s been coming and I think we discussed this after some insurers made their announcements, but I thought to separate it out.

I just received this from my insurer also confirming that they won’t cover a “grid failure” which interestingly enough is not just a national blackout, but even municipal / local and also covers “interference”.

Just highlighting the “grid failure” definition:

Definition of electricity grid failure:
Electricity grid failure means a national (including regional, municipal, local and/or private) interruption, interference, blackout, failure or suspension of the electricity grid of South Africa for whatsoever reason, whether due to damage, an inability and/or failure, whether partial or total, of the utility supplier to generate, transmit or distribute electricity, or otherwise.

And then the letter’s contents in full:

The following general exclusion will be added to the General Terms, Conditions and Exclusions section of the policy wording:

Electricity grid failure exclusion:
Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary within this insurance agreement, this insurance does not cover any loss, damage (whether physical or financial), legal liability, claim, cost or expense of whatsoever nature, including any consequential losses in terms of any section of this policy, directly or indirectly caused by, contributed to by, resulting from, arising out of or in connection with electricity grid failure.

Definition of electricity grid failure:
Electricity grid failure means a national (including regional, municipal, local and/or private) interruption, interference, blackout, failure or suspension of the electricity grid of South Africa for whatsoever reason, whether due to damage, an inability and/or failure, whether partial or total, of the utility supplier to generate, transmit or distribute electricity, or otherwise.

Household goods section:

Accidental spoiling of fridge and freezer contents:
We will compensate you up to the limit shown in the schedule for the accidental spoiling of the contents of your fridges or freezers in your Home and Outbuildings if the spoiling results from either:
• Breakdown or accidental damage to the fridge or freezer;
• Failure of the public power supply but excluding electricity grid failure.

We do not compensate you for:
• Damage to fridges or freezers themselves;
• Spoiling due to load-shedding, or electrical grid failure, of a power-supply authority on a national, regional, municipal, local and/or private level;
• Spoiling that has happened because you have not paid for or bought sufficient power or fuel.

Accidental damage including power surge (included and optional covers):

We do not compensate you for loss or damage caused by:
• Electricity grid failure

Homeowners section:

Power surges (optional):
We will compensate you for damage to the Private Home that is caused by power surges from accidental changes in the power supply of a public supply authority but excluding electricity grid failure.

2

Very wide definition!

So if your local transformer trips/burns then… NO COVER…

3

Well, two things. 1) That cover probably cost them absolutely nothing to provide, and therefore added almost no cost to the premium, and 2) They should expect people who do have such household appliance cover in their policies to start cancelling it. Which is probably what they want anyway (it is called “herding”, medical aids do it all the time to ensure that people migrate away from options they no longer want to provide).

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4

the way I read the exclusions is that only if any of those events happen due to a national GRID failure - i.e. a black start scenario where millions of freezers are likely to be defrosting as opposed to the couple hundred freezers when the local transformer goes poof.

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5

These insurance exclusions … also one of my “markers”. Been “waiting” for it for the last ±3-5 years.

  1. The claims submitted and paid out to date due to LS woes, have become seriously expensive.
  2. See below (###)

And the claims that were paid out, many were not strictly caused by LS either … sometimes stuff broke due to old age but a claim was put in because there was LS see. Just saying. :wink:

This exclusion I read the other week, comes from re-insurers who lost faith in the grid being repaired, they cannot keep on paying claims if there is no “end in sight”, for the re-insurers that is. They are the ones excluding it, hence the locals must also exclude it.

This could therefore be another reason that the populace, that has insurance that is, will now get super gatvol, seeing it is going to cost them a lot more, this LS thing.

My El.Tech, similar to the Tripconnect, today disconnected my main DB at 250v, as per my setting. Took about 40min to reconnect again at 245v.

The other week, before it was installed, the inverter disconnect late one night when the volts went over 250v. Heard it on the fan in the bedroom.

It dawned upon me today … hold a minute, as chaffed as I was when the Victron disconnected, the critical loads being protected … the rest was not protected!

(###)
Which is another point I wondered on then … because of this thread, what I see … how many insured clients have actually installed added protection in their DBs to mitigate the damage because of LS?

6

today received an email from the insurer informing me that: “Installing a surge protection unit can generally cost less than the excess on a claim for damaged appliances”… so login, click here, click there, (en siedaar - with apologies to Martino) select a service provider and choose the quote you want to accept, make payment and the service provider will supply and install the device".

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7

Who is your insurer? Santam?

On my Victron Dealers’ insistence, way back, he told me to please install surge protection in the main DB, a 2nd one in the critical loads DB, so that the inverter sits between the two surge protections, nothing coming in from Eskom side, nothing can come from like surges from like a TV aerial or whatnot.

Overkill, the 2nd one, he said for Cpt, not so much lighning, but I thought it made sense.

Recently he insisted I get an AVS30 before the inverter when I had my issues. I said no, 30a is not enough, I will get one for the entire main DB. Sent him the Tripconnect link, and he learned something new from me for a change. :slight_smile:

All this is because of the repairs they were affecting because of LS, on Victron inverters.

Ou Riaan is nogal jacked.

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8

Outsurance

9

Good to see Sollatek being mentioned. A solid focused company IMHO…

10

I also received a letter from my insurer about grid failure exclusions but this does not include loadshedding.

My policy has zero excess currently but they will be applying a 10% excess for any surge related claims. I can keep the 0 excess if I get a 40KA surge protector installed.

11

Who is this? Sounds like a reasonable deal.

12

Indequity specialized insurance.

They only insure professionals with 3+ year degrees or if your policy is over a certain amount.

I’ve claimed twice for lighting damage over the past 15 years and there wasn’t any issues. Once at previous home and then last year but that’s also the only thing I’ve claimed for.

13

I also heard that Mercedes Benz refuses to honour the warranty on one of their expensive PHEVs, because the battery was damaged by load shedding, or so they claimed. I still think that was BS and MB just used it as an excuse.