Theft and vandalism claims are deemed invalid by City Power
“For a liability claim to be successful, the claimant must prove negligence on our part,” said City Power's spokesperson Sol Masolo.
City Power has rejected claims from its clients who’ve been attempting to hold the entity accountable for damages to their electrical equipment following power disruptions.
Sol Masolo, the power utility’s spokesperson warded off the claims, saying that clients must prove how City Power was at fault.“For a liability claim to be successful, the claimant must prove negligence on our part,” he said.
He said the insurance department is aware of the outages. He added that although they have liability cover in place, incidents of theft and vandalism are not covered by the entity’s liability policy as no negligence can be attached to City Power or City of Johannesburg
Also Read: Power is not the problem, cable theft and vandalism is…
A Little Falls resident, Sonja Maier, told Northsider that her attempt to claim for her electrical appliances which were destroyed during a power outage in July was allegedly denied by City Power. The Northsider is in possession of the rejection letter.
She said her matter was blamed on cable theft, which she disputed.
Maier lamented that she lost a fridge, an external hard drive, power supply back-ups and more, and her modem was damaged.
Masolo made it clear that City Power insurers will not respond to any claim if the cause is linked to theft. “Since the cause of these outages is theft-related, our policy will not pay out any claims made against us,” he explained.
However, Masolo said the entity can assist customers who need to claim from their insurers by providing them with written confirmation of the outages and the cause of thereof.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northsider@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
