Claims case studies
We talk a lot about how important insurance is for tradies, but the best way demonstrate this is by looking at some real life examples.
The following case studies involve real claims that the author has been involved in.
Damaged Louvers – Public Liability
An electrician was undertaking work on a building which featured motorised louvers.
Somehow the wiring was reinstalled incorrectly, and when the louvers where next used the motor operating them went in reverse.
This caused over $30,000 worth of damage to the installation.
Thankfully the electrician had public liability insurance in place, and the cost of the damage was covered by his insurance.
Without insurance in place, this incident could have wiped out many months’ worth of profit for the electrician.
For more information please visit our public liability and faulty workmanship pages.
Stolen Tools – Tool Insurance
This is a classic claim for tradies, and we could literally list dozens of case studies.
But we can only pick one, so we’ll go with the carpenter in Tasmania who had his trailer broken into.
This tradie had a box trailer with an a-frame style tool box built into it, similar to the one pictured to the left.
The trailer was broken into whilst parked out the front of the guy’s home, and most of his tools were stolen, including all of his power tools.
He reported the theft to the police, and informed his insurer of the details surrounding the claim and the police report number.
He didn’t have receipts for all of the tools, but he could provide photos of the original boxes and instruction manuals for them which was enough to satisfy the insurance company.
The tradie then had to provide the insurance company with quotes for the replacement of the tools. This was simply done by getting prices from various tool retailers’ websites.
The claim for approximately $7,000 was paid so that the guy could replace the stolen tools. Not a bad return on a tool insurance policy that only cost around $250 per year.
Nail Through Hand – Income Protection
Many tradies have public liability and tool insurance, but unfortunately there is a lower uptake of income protection amongst tradesmen.
A carpenter from the Gold Coast was very lucky to have had income protection insurance when he put a nail through his wrist.
Whilst on the job this carpenter accidentally discharged a nail gun, sending a nail straight through one of the bones in his hand.
Because he had income protection in place, he was paid approximately six weeks’ benefits.
Furthermore, because he had taken the ‘day 1 accident option’ he was paid benefits from day 1 of the accident instead of having to wait for the full 30 day waiting period to start.
For more information please visit our tradies income protection page.
More Information
Via the Tradesman Insurance website you can request quotes on all three of the insurance types list above, along with a range of other covers which may be suitable.
In each of the case studies above the claim payments far exceeded the cost of the insurance, which goes to show the great value that insurance can provide.
For more information or to get a quote please complete our online quote request or get in contact with us.
