Apologies if this is posted in the wrong section but I’m not sure where it fits.
I’m a Portugal GV investor with a property investment and I recently had the displeasure of dealing with my Novobanco insurance when the roof leaked into my top floor apartment. It’s a 3 apartment building and there is no registered “condominium” as this is what the new owners (myself and 2 other GV investors) inherited. My apartment was the only one that suffered damages due to being on the top floor. When I lodged a claim with my NB insurance the experience was difficult to say the least. The assessor or claims handler did not speak a word of English so communication was hard, also because he didn’t respond to emails in any reasonable time frame (like a month or more). My claim basically got denied on the grounds that the roof is the condominium’s responsibility. But there is no condominium. And when I signed up for insurance the form asked what kind of roof I had so I assumed I’d be insured for issues arising from my roof.
Anyway is there a better option out there that someone could recommend?
So sorry to hear about your issues, Bob. However, I am not at all surprised.
I was advised, by Portuguese, to file a legal action in the case of such a dispute. There are some version of “small claims” court (up to 15K €), and you might want to investigate it. FYI, I too have Mudum (Novobanco product), and I am dreading to ever need to use it. I too will be looking for a better option starting next year to divorse myself from the Novobanco.
Thanks, but I’m not resident there at the moment so a small claims type claim just wouldn’t be feasible unless it could all be done online and remotely. Meanwhile I’ll just take a haircut on the damages. It’s all part of the PT GV experience.
I am familiar with a similar situation. No condominium there as well, but it turned out in the small print of the original building, that the roof is the joint responsibility of all apartments. You could have a discussion with your fellow apartment owners re the status of the roof, and split the costs in proportion to your respective sq m. (Possible carrot for them: in future, you could jointly put solar panels on the roof, and offset electricity bills of all apartments.)
I personally do not see any point in purchasing any kind of insurance product, unless it is mandatory by law. Possibly one exception is the travel insurance but only if you travel like there is no tomorrow (i.e. if you travel a lot
You may think you may claim, but then when the proverbial substance hits the ventilator, you are stuck between:
the insurance denies your claime because reasons..
the insurance approves your claim but there is an excess and a cap so the payout is only worth to buy some salted peanuts
the insurance approves but you have to use an “approved supplier”, or else if you want to use your own supplier, your own supplier wants you to pay cash, and guess what you already paid months ago because that roof leak (or insert your favorite claim subject) was kinda urgent
Yes, I clean the substance from the ventilator myself in most cases. The only reason I got insurance is that if fire or flood completely destroyed the ventilator, walls, roof, and all, then at least some insurance company is notionally on the hook to pay the cost of reconstruction. Whether they will or won’t in an actual event I don’t know, but some gesture towards protecting half a million of real estate seems warranted, I guess.
The OP is asking about insurance, but the problem starts with the form of ownership. All three have this problem to sort out first before you know what your insurable interest is.
I think Portuguese homeowner’s insurance is pretty dodgy, in general. I also have a top floor terrace leaking into my home. The insuror said it was the association’s responsibility. I’m sure I will be very popular with every other owner when it comes to diying up the thousands it will co0st to repair something (the terrace) for which they don’t see any benefit to. I had some interior damage from a leaky A. In the US to get an estimate from a contractor and after the insuror approves it, he fixes it and bills them. Here they say you contract it out and pay up front and then file a claim. Then we’ll decide whether to reimburse you.
