On an insurance job, settle three things before you lift a tool: who is engaging you and who will pay you, what exactly has been approved and by whom in writing, and who collects the excess. Then quote the way an assessor reads. Itemise every line with a quantity and a rate, separate damage from the event from wear and tear or older faults, quote emergency make-safe work separately from the permanent repair, and photograph everything before, during and after. The one rule that saves the most money: never start the permanent repair because someone said the insurer will cover it. Start when whoever is paying has approved your quote in writing.
Three ways an insurance job reaches you
Insurance work arrives by different routes, and the route decides who your client is.
- The homeowner rings you. They engage you, you quote them, and they lodge your quote with their insurer. The insurer may approve it and pay you, pay the homeowner, or decide to settle the claim another way. Until you know which, your client is the homeowner.
- The insurer approves your quote and pays you directly. The homeowner pays the excess, and the insurer pays the rest. Your quote needs to satisfy the assessor, and your invoice goes where the insurer directs.
- The insurer appoints its own builder or repairer. If you are engaged as a subcontractor by that builder, the builder is your client, on the builder's terms and payment cycle. The homeowner is the person you are working for in practice, but not the one paying you.
Whether a policy lets the homeowner choose their own repairer, and how a claim is settled, is between the homeowner and their insurer. Do not promise a homeowner that the insurer will accept you, or that the damage is covered. Say what you found and let the insurer decide.
Make-safe and permanent repair are two jobs
Make-safe work stops further damage: a tarp on a roof, a board over a window, water extracted, power isolated. It is urgent, it is usually done before any assessor has seen the property, and many policies cover reasonable emergency work. The homeowner should confirm that with their insurer, but nobody expects them to wait in the rain for an answer.
Quote make-safe as its own job, accepted on the spot by the homeowner, with a note that the permanent repair will be quoted separately once the damage can be assessed. Then the permanent repair is a second quote, with time to measure and photograph properly. The glaziers page shows the same split for a break-in.
Write it for the assessor
An assessor or loss adjuster compares your quote with what they saw, and often with their own scope or rates. Make their job easy and your quote gets through faster.
- Itemise with quantities and units: square metres of ceiling, number of tiles, metres of cornice, hours of a named trade.
- Describe damage factually. "Ceiling sheet water damaged and sagging, 9 square metres" is evidence. "Caused by the storm" is an opinion that is not yours to give, unless the cause is plain and within your expertise.
- Separate anything that is not event damage. An old stain, a rusted flashing, rotten timber that has clearly been wet for years: put it on its own quote, marked as not part of the claim. Assessors trust a repairer who does this, and homeowners are better off knowing.
- Photograph each item before you touch it, with something in the shot for scale, and label the photos to match the lines.
A worked example
Brushbox Building Repairs is a fictional multi-trade repair business. A hailstorm cracks roof tiles over a lounge room, and water brings down part of the ceiling. The homeowner rings at nine at night.
The make-safe quote goes out from the driveway: after-hours call-out $240, tarp and secure the damaged section $380, remove saturated ceiling sheet and insulation, 9 square metres at $28, $252. Total $872. The homeowner accepts it on her phone and the work starts.
Two days later Brushbox sends the permanent repair quote:
- Replace cracked roof tiles, 12 at $22: $264
- Supply and fix ceiling sheet, 9 square metres at $48: $432
- Cornice, 7 metres at $16: $112
- Paint lounge room ceiling, 1 room: $420
- Replace ceiling insulation, 9 square metres at $18: $162
- Electrician to check and refit downlights, 2 hours at $115: $230
- Waste removal: $180
Total $1,800, with photos of each item labelled to the lines. In the hallway, Brushbox also found a stain from a flashing that has been leaking for years. That goes on a separate $640 quote to the homeowner, headed as not part of the claim.
The homeowner forwards the repair quote to her insurer. The assessor approves it and the insurer confirms in writing that it will pay Brushbox $1,050, the $1,800 less the homeowner's $750 excess, which Brushbox collects from the homeowner before the ceiling goes up. Only then is the work booked.
Quote Desk sends each quote to the email you enter, usually the homeowner's, and the accept link works for whoever opens it, so agree with the homeowner who presses Accept this quote when an insurer is involved; the water damage page walks through a similar claim.
Door-knocking after storms
If you approach homeowners uninvited after a storm, rather than waiting for them to call, the unsolicited selling rules in the Australian Consumer Law apply, including a cooling-off period and limits on when you can start work and take payment. Check the rules with the ACCC before you canvass a street. Many homeowners are also wary of anyone who knocks after a storm, with good reason, so the trades who do best on insurance work are usually the ones who were already known in the area.
Mistakes to avoid
- Starting the permanent repair on a verbal assurance that it is covered.
- One lump-sum figure that an assessor cannot check line by line.
- Rolling old damage into the claim, which puts the homeowner's claim and your reputation at risk.
- Losing track of who collects the excess, and finishing the job without it.
- Giving opinions on cause or cover in writing that go beyond what you saw.
What to do this week
- Write a standard make-safe quote for your trade that you can send from the driveway at night.
- Set up a photo routine for insurance jobs: before, during and after, labelled to the quote lines.
- Draft a note sentence that separates event damage from pre-existing damage.
- Ask the next insurer or insurer's builder you deal with how they want quotes and invoices addressed.
- Read the glossary entry on scope of works, which assessors read first.