A business owner will not be covered for heat damage to pool covers stored in shipping containers after the dispute authority backed his insurer’s application of a policy exclusion.  

The claimant said parts of the covers warped and melted in January after the containers were moved from his business’ factory to its yard, where they remained for several weeks.  

Hollard Insurance found the pool covers were affected by heat. It noted the potential for an “oven effect” that could take a shipping container’s interior temperature to 50-60 degrees on a warm day.  

Bureau of Meteorology data showed several days above 27 degrees at the business’ location.  

The insurer also noted that the pool covers’ supplier agreed the damage was consistent with a change in temperature.

Hollard referred to a policy exclusion stating it would not cover loss caused by “variation in temperature”. 

The claimant said the damage arose because the containers were left outside, not because of a temperature variation, saying temperatures were stable at the time.  

He said the containers were ventilated and the loss was accidental.  

But the Australian Financial Complaints Authority says evidence shows temperature variations caused the damage.  

“In this case, the pool covers were exposed to variations in temperature when the shipping containers were moved from the factory to the yard, and when they were subjected to variations in the external temperature,” the authority’s ruling ombudsman said.

“These variations include an increase in temperature sufficient to cause damage to the covers.  

“I also acknowledge the complainant says the shipping containers were ventilated. But the ... shipping containers had clearly increased to a high enough temperature to cause the damage, regardless of whether they were ventilated or not.”  

The decision entitles Hollard to decline the claim. Click here for the ruling.