Eight years on from a damaging hail storm, Sunshine Coast woman Kendra Stace still feels its wrath almost every day.
Key points:
- Kendra Stace’s roof on her Bli Bli home was replaced in 2014 after a hail storm
- The 2014 works were deemed faulty, but repairs completed in 2021 have only worsened the issue
- Her insurer has offered Ms Stace a payout, but she fears it won’t be enough to cover expenses
The 44-year-old is waiting for her home to be properly repaired after dodgy building works caused further heartache, financial strain, and left her feeling abandoned by her insurer.
Ms Stace said she had no other option than to live in her “uninhabitable” home under a roof with no ceiling and exposed asbestos lining the top of the walls.
“We have power to the power points because we’ve sectioned off the live wires that are hanging down from the roof. We can’t use our oven, our hot water system’s a bit touch and go,” she said.
Ms Stace’s roof was damaged in a hail storm that hit Bli Bli in 2013, but the work to replace it was not done properly by her insurance company’s builder.
In 2020, her insurer CommInsure arranged remedial works, but that only made things worse when asbestos materials were disturbed.
The building scope of works to repair the property now indicates the walls, basins, fittings, fixtures, and appliances have to be removed, and Ms Stace has been left to fix the issue.
“We would have to gut our house and take it back to the frame,” she said.
“We launched a claim, and here we are eight years later living in our uninhabitable, potentially contaminated home and expected to repair it in three months.”
‘A difficult situation’
CommInsure is offering Ms Stace a cash payout after the dispute was escalated to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
A CBA spokesperson for CommInsure said the company was committed to supporting Ms Stace through the process.
“We understand Ms Stace faces a difficult situation arising from the repairs needed to her property,” a spokesperson said.
“Over the past year, CommInsure has provided temporary accommodation and storage costs.”
But Ms Stace fears the offer would not be enough to cover her expenses and leaves her to source multiple trades and materials in a turbulent and inflated construction industry.
“It’s been an absolute nightmare and they’ve had absolutely no regard for us whatsoever,” she said.
Noosaville lawyer Wayne Davis said it was important home owners did their homework before accepting payouts because it could make them liable for extra costs and prevent them from taking legal action in the future.
“With the increased cost of building materials and labour it might even be six months before anything can get started on the job,” Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis said accepting payouts in houses where asbestos was present required even more consideration.
“If they take a payout it might not cover any future losses for illness, for example, in relation to asbestosis, or lung cancer,” he said.
“These illnesses can be 20, 25 years in the future, so potentially accepting a payment now, even though it’s only for building works, may cause complications in the future in relation to any future losses for ill health or personal injuries.”
Stuck in a hard place
Ms Stace, her partner and two dogs shuffled between at least nine temporary homes from March to December last year as they waited for the remediation works to be completed.
But in a rental vacancy market of 0.3 per cent, finding a home to accommodate them close to work has not been easy.
Ms Stace’s house troubles have been compounded by a car accident and redundancy due to the pandemic.
While she waits for Freedom of Information documents she believes will help her case in getting her home repaired, Ms Stace hopes her home is not repossessed as she has no funds to make repayments.
“I’ve had to sell personal items because we cannot access some of the $300,000 equity here due to it being defective,” she said.
Ms Stace said she was physically and mentally exhausted from her ordeal, but she was not about to give up.
“I feel like I’m about to explode because we’ve done everything we’re meant to have done,” she said.
“I’ve been doing this full time. If you ask them, I ring them every day and I email them every day.”
