Recently I have moved house twice Both times thought I will go with ‘reliable’ moving companies
Grace Removals one of the largest in Australia. It shocked me that insurance cost was as large as removal. You HAVE to use their insurance company and over value and therefore over insure everything.They advertise reliability Why do you need insurance then? And everything ‘priceless’ in value
Furniture arrived DAMAGED Movers tried to hide damage with pictures in front and ‘missing’ items
So went with Allied one of the largest in the world and Australia. ONE truck,ONE STOP yet missing pictures and damaged goods. Reported missing pictures(sentimental value only) Allied couldn’t CARE,
No investigation,No concern Just get lost and don’t bother us.
Reported STOLEN goods to police. Police said goods aren’t STOLEN, they can be reported LOST,no crime committed. What has Australia become? Also Allied(the CAREFUL movers) stacked pictures in boxes with NO packing, a printer/scanner and food processor atop boxes of glassware,no packing.
Have to move again Don’t know where to go Why can’t you choose transit insurance companies? Travel insurance is $1 million for a fixed fee and you can shop around.
I know it take years to make a claim and you would only get a small payment. I wanted my pictures back NOT money Still no one cared if goods ‘fall off the truck’(STOLEN) not even the police
You don’t have to use their insurance. There is what is called transit insurance which has wider cover (less exemptions), lower excesses and can be used when moving houses.
An example being, when we moved from Qld to Tasmania, the removalist insurance was about $2500-3000+ (depending on the type of cover), transit insurance through our broker costs just under $700.
Removalists may say that you have to use their insurance, but this is a furphy and misleading/shonky advice (which would be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law).
Some removalists use contractors to ‘assist’ with their operations. Some contractors may not share the same level of care nor attention to other persons property. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find out whether contractors will be used for all or part of the journey.
While there is insurance, this does not protect a removalist against negligence. But to make a claim against a removalist for negligence one will need evidence and possibly seek legal advice.
It has been over a decade since our last move, so this may not be current, but I used our home & contents insurance company to cover the removal. I simply advised them of the move and the value of the goods being moved. I don’t recall there being any extra cost (unlikely these days).
There are other related topics.
From Choice two dated but still relevant articles
I searched for transit insurance and was unable to find one that covered my needs. They told me ONLY if the truck is destroyed would I get money not for damages or THEFT. Reported THEFT to Police without evidence of theft they are LOST goods. So unless they turn up at ‘lost property’ they are stolen as far as I’m concerned.
Some Household and Contents policies have coverage for items in transit, it may be worth checking and making a claim if you have such a policy?? While it won’t recover the lost or possibly stolen goods, it provides some financial recompense for the lost items.
I am not sure who told you this, but it isn’t correct. I suspect it may have been the removalist trying to sell their own expensive and limited insurance . Canstar provides some good information on Transit Insurance…
https://www.canstar.com.au/home-insurance/transit-insurance/
Theft during transit and temporary storage associated with transit is covered as a standard inclusion in transit insurance. It is possible to get transit insurance which excludes theft to save money on the premium, but, it would be risky. As stated by Canstar, transit insurance can cover:
- loss or damage to your goods while in transit (e.g. caused by road accidents, fires, derailment, theft, impact or malicious damage, as well as grounding of vessels and crashes or forced landings for aircraft)
Our own transit insurance cover we had a few years ago covered theft, including when in temporary storage, providing the storage was part of the single move. It also covered many things excluded in the removalist insurance. This was the policy PDS we took out, and we chose policy option 2 on recommendation of our broker.
As @grahroll indicated, many contents insurance policies have limited transit/moving cover. Our own insurance didn’t provide cover for our move and we took out separate transit insurance elsewhere.
