Toolangi’s Binz Nursery owner challenging Elders and QBE Insurance on fire claim
A third generation Yarra Valley strawberry plant grower could lose his farm unless he finds half a million dollars to rebuild after fire destroyed his shed. He thought the farm was fully insured — but his insurance company won’t pay up in full.
Outer East
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A Toolangi strawberry plant farmer left devastated by a fire that destroyed vital equipment has been left almost high and dry by his insurance company.
Third generation strawberry plant grower Trevor Binz lost his shed and coolrooms — mid-harvest — in a fire that took several CFA crew hours to extinguish in March.
But now five months after the blaze, his insurance company Elders, owned by QBE, has told Mr Binz he was underinsured and committed to only paying $485,000 the $985,000 estimated to demolish the site and rebuild.
However, Mr Binz said he had Elders come an value his property annually to make sure it was insured for the correct amount.
Mr Binz said following the fire, the insurance company undertook an investigation into the cause, which is now being blamed on a faulty Smart metre and Elders was chasing up SP Ausnet for the payout amount.
But Mr Binz and his family were left to find $500,000 to urgently rebuild in time for their crucial harvest season.
“For five months they’ve been stringing me along … now they’ve decided I’m underinsured and they don’t want to pay for even half of the rebuild,” Mr Binz said.
“They decided to do a Google Maps evaluation and some of the buildings, the greenhouses and sheds, were outrageously overvalued.”
He said some of the buildings were very old greenhouses built by his grandfather 60 years ago.
Mr Binz and his wife Belinda have set up a GoFundMe page to try and get some funds up before March 2021.
Mr Binz said he paid out his father and grandmother to own the nursery, which supplies strawberry plants to the region’s growers.
“I’m mortgaged to the hilt,” he said.
“I have a nice home and car and my life is good — I don’t want people’s perspective to be skewed, it’s a carefully budgeted life,” he said.
In a plea for help on the GoFundMe page Mr Binz said: “I’m a third generation strawberry runner farmer. I work 12-hour days, sometimes seven days a week to give my family the best and now it all maybe for nothing if we cannot afford to rebuild, our business will go bankrupt and we will lose everything including our home.”
“There is also a domino effect if my business goes bankrupt and I cannot supply the six million strawberry runners, the fruit growers who receive my runners will be effected too,” he said.
QBE has been contacted for comment.
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