'Not enough': owner challenges cover for misplaced diamond

A woman who filed a claim for a missing diamond from her engagement ring will have limited cover for her loss after a dispute ruling decision.

The insurer accepted the complainant’s claim on November 2 last year but restricted its cover to $10,000 as per the complainant’s home and contents policy.

The claimant challenged the amount provided to her by Suncorp, saying the insurer misled her in negotiations and that she wouldn’t be able to replace the diamond with the amount offered.

The woman supplied a quote for a diamond replacement at $29,460 but asked the insurer to pay $20,000, a number equal to a wedding band covered by the policy.

She said the ring was worth more than the wedding band and asked for the values listed for these items to be swapped.

The insurer provided the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) panel with an independent jeweler’s liability report that quoted the amount to replace the diamond as $15,900, with a retail price of $32,000.

During conversations with the insurer, the complainant said she was misled to believe that she would be fully covered if she provided proof of purchase and was talked into reducing her cover to a lower amount.

In the call from June 4 2019, the woman is heard answering an insurer representative that both her wedding band and engagement ring are worth $30,000.

But when the representative asks the woman what the valuation of the ring alone was, she appears to be unsure. The representative asks her if it was worth $15,000, to which she responds, “$10,000 maybe”. The insurer then asks if the other $20,000 would be for the wedding band, which she affirms.

“Ok well maybe if we can note then so there’s the engagement [ring] and wedding band which is probably $30,000,” the complainant said when listing the jewellery on her plan.

AFCA said it was not persuaded the insurer misled the complainant during the call, saying that the representative correctly recorded the sums she agreed to.

It said the mention of the $30,000 ring was only in a hypothetical scenario and that she was clearly advised her engagement ring was worth $10,000.

The decision ruled that Suncorp was entitled to limit its cover to $10,000, saying the claimant agreed to this amount and was able to make changes before the loss if she was unsatisfied with the policy.

Click here for the full ruling.