About 40% of Contingent Business Interruption (CBI) claims have not been submitted to short-term insurance company, Santam, and time is running out.
Santam reiterated an earlier statement that CBI claimants had a final deadline date of August 31 to submit their claims information to Santam.
The company has made a financial provision of R3 billion (€175.8m) for nett CBI claims, and has issued assurances to clients that it is committed to paying all valid claims as soon as possible. However, the responsibility of submitting a claim lies with the policyholder and the company is not able to process such claims until all relevant documentation is submitted.
“We therefore urge those clients who previously indicated that they would claim against their CBI policies, to furnish us with the relevant claims information that will enable us to conclude this process speedily,” said Santam Group CEO, Lizé Lambrechts.
A total of 3 252 policyholders previously notified Santam of their intention to formulate and submit CBI claims, however just over 60% of these clients have submitted claims information.
The policy wording requires that the statement of particulars of a claim be formulated and submitted within 30 days of the end of the relevant period stipulating the length of cover (indemnity period).
The vast majority of the CBI policies have limits of cover ranging between three and 12 months, therefore these clients should by now have finalised their claims, given the time that has elapsed. Santam has, on numerous occasions, extended the deadline for claims submission.
Santam has, since the beginning of 2021, recruited an additional forty loss adjusters to expedite the processing of claims, and implemented a simplified fast-track CBI claims process for SMEs that only requires completion of a two-page spreadsheet with supporting documentation that includes financial statements that would ordinarily be used for tax-filing purposes.
To date, Santam has paid R1.6 billion (€93.8m) in CBI claims, including R600 million (€35 200) to policyholders by mid-July 2021 and R1 billion (€58.6m) interim relief paid to 2 500 policyholders in August 2020.
“We are very concerned that there could be clients who are experiencing hardship but have not submitted information to enable the assessment and settlement of their claims. They effectively have a month to do so,” Lambrechts stressed.
