We offer coverage and resolution advice on disputed first-party claims and associated subrogated recoveries. Our priority is to provide excellent service that aligns with insurers’ commercial objectives, emphasizing speed and proactivity.
For more complex claims, such as those involving hotels, strata properties, commercial, and industrial premises, we offer specialist technical knowledge and expert witness networks. This enables us to handle various types of losses, particularly those stemming from common perils like fire, water damage, and weather events.
Typically, these claims involve insured parties who are landlords or tenants. Leveraging our experience in property law, strata regulations, and leasing arrangements, we navigate competing pressures to achieve successful and efficient outcomes, including subrogated recoveries.
Recent work
We have provided indemnity advice on several industrial warehouse fire claims and landlord or tenant claims involving fire or flood at shopping complexes.
We acted on claims for material damage and business interruption losses arising out of the Pike River Coal Mine explosion in New Zealand.
We acted in a claim for damages caused by bushfires in Australia, which resulted in extensive destruction of a commercial farm. The matter involved preparing extensive evidence to substantiate the loss pursued.
We are acting on two of the largest property insurance losses in Australian mining – Atlantic Ltd and First Quantum Minerals – involving a significant fire loss of a beneficiation plant, and the catastrophic failure of an atmospheric leach tank at a nickel plant, both in Western Australia.
We are advising on a claim involving the damage to a warehouse built over a quarry. The claim involves allegations that a creek, which was realigned in 2012/13 on the approval of Melbourne Water, leaked and caused consolidation of the fill under the building. Proportionate responsibility in this matter is important due to the flooding that occurred in Victoria in late 2022.
In 2017, Renex issued proceedings in the Federal Court for indemnity under two Industrial Special Risks (ISR) insurance policies regarding a series of incidents involving fire and machinery breakdown at Renex’s waste treatment/resource recovery facility in Melbourne. We acted for the insurer in defence of the litigation, in which over AUD $44 million was claimed for damage and consequential losses. The litigation ran for close to five years, settling at pre-trial mediation shortly before commencement of a five-week hearing.