Insurance: don’t make a bad situation worse

MTA has consulted with insurance and legal experts to provide advice for members affected by the Auckland flooding and other natural disasters.

• If you are insured through an insurance broker, contact them for guidance. They can advise what cover you have, what claims you might make, when, and the process. If you are insured directly with an insurance company or mutual fund, then contact them.

• You will need to notify a claim to your insurer, generally through your insurance broker and with their guidance. Do not delay submitting an insurance claim (subject to your broker’s input). In some cases it may be appropriate to submit a preliminary claim promptly, and supplement that later with detailed inventories and other information.

• Take plenty of photographs, document what happened and what you see (make notes etc). Keep copies of all invoices, documents and correspondence, and identify high watermarks etc. Salvage what you can, including electronic records and stock.

• You can (and in many cases should) try to mitigate the loss or damage without making things worse or compromising the site/ evidence. But you should work through that with civil defence/emergency services, and