John Stride (inset) has had his building licence suspended after lodging a false insurance claim. File picture. Photo: zimmytws/123RF
A builder made a false insurance claim on a $1.3 million policy after heavy rain caused damage to a site he was working on and for which he had failed to organise cover.
John Stride had told his client he had taken out $2m of cover for the project, but never did.
So when the rain hit and the foundations needed significant reworking, Stride scrambled to obtain an insurance policy and then lied to the company about when the damage had occurred, before trying to make a claim.
It is conduct that has now landed Stride a six-month suspension of his registration as a licensed building practitioner.
This week, the Building Practitioners Board released the case's ruling, which detailed how Stride was contracted in February 2022 to build a residential house on a clear site.
The contract provided for $2m of insurance cover, which Stride was responsible for obtaining, in case anything went wrong with the build.
After work on the site began in April, the foundations were undertaken the following month and by 17 May, the building platform had been established and compacted.
However, six days later Tauranga was hit with heavy rain that damaged the building platform.
A site inspection report recommended areas needed to be undercut and filled. The client then looked to claim insurance to fix the damage and chased up Stride to sort it out.
But Stride had never taken out the policy despite assuring the client he had, and in June contacted an insurance broker to arrange cover.
"I am needing a new contract works policy please. The client called me today and he has forgotten to contact me to put one in place. The job has already started one month ago, however, they have only just broken ground so very early on in the build," Stride wrote in an email to an underwriter.
A policy of $1.3m was put in place, $700,000 less than the contract with the client stipulated, and cover began on 14 June, 2022, with a clear note that the cover was not retrospective.
Stride did not inform the insurance company the site had suffered weather damage in May.
He then waited until the end of August to claim on the policy, telling the insurer heavy rain on 17 August had caused the damage.
The insurance assessor immediately noted there had been rain on 18 August, but not on 17 August.
Some back and forth occurred between Stride and the insurance assessors who eventually concluded the damage had happened before the policy was taken.
A complaint was then made to the Building Practitioners Board, which held a hearing on the matter this year. Stride did not participate in that hearing.
"It was clear to the board that the respondent [Stride] had not obtained insurance prior to the start of the build, contrary to the building contract that he had entered into, and that he made an insurance claim in which he falsely claimed damage to the building site had been caused by a weather event that occurred after the insurance cover had been put in place," the subsequent ruling read.
"The finding is made on the basis that the respondent knowingly made a false insurance claim and that he misled the complainant as regards the status of the insurance cover and claim."
Stride's conduct was serious, deliberate and sustained and had brought the building profession into disrepute, the board said.
It noted he'd been found guilty of negligent building work in 2022 and never paid his fine.
As a penalty, the board began at a start point of cancelling Stride's licence but landed on a six-month suspension, which it stated would serve as a warning. He was also ordered to pay costs of $2625.
Stride was approached for comment.
-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.