Insurance cover is not cover at all.
What if your insurance cover, did not cover what you thought? Face value insurance certificates are glossy and enticing however in the instance of a future claim are you sure everything is covered? What about Prior damage?
Prior Damage
A good example of this situation is Dave. Dave owned a rental property during the 2011 quakes. Apart from the damage to his building, the boundary block wall between his and the neighbours properties was damaged. Dave was cash-settled by his insurer to undertake the repairs, however, failed to undertake the work. Dave sold his rental property to a young family in 2015.
Fast forward to 2017 when a car crashed into the wall and ‘wrote it off completely’. The new owners claimed for insurance. Their insurer (Dave’s previous insurer) voided the claim due to having ‘already cash-settled’ with Dave and the new owners could not prove any repairs were done.
The aforementioned situation will apply to dwellings, outbuildings, fencing, paving, and driveways.
Risknet database searches may not pick up everything, but they are a useful and potentially valuable tool as a due diligence check that may highlight works paid for yet not undertaken by prior vendors.
Check it, record it, keep it.