A woman who identified her roofing as “cement tiles” from a list of options has had a hail damage claim upheld by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) following a dispute over the accuracy of the description.

Auto & General initially declined the claim because the roofing was actually cement fibro that contained asbestos and it says cover would not have been offered if that had been disclosed.

The seven alternatives presented to the applicant as part of the insurance application process were cement tiles, clay/terracotta tiles, colorbond, other metal, slate, thatch and other.

The policyholder says she thought cement sheets, cement tiles and cement fibro were the same material and she was unaware of the asbestos when she bought the policy.

But the insurer says the policyholder should have selected “other” from the options, which would then have led to a cover warning.

AFCA rejected suggestions that a phone call showed the woman knew of the asbestos when purchasing the policy. It determined that she believed she had answered the question correctly, and there had not been a disclosure breach.

The insurer’s roofing question asks the applicant to select “the main construction material” from a list of choices and there is no prompt about asbestos, AFCA notes.

“The online application process and the specific question asked of the complainant, did not reasonably put her on notice that asbestos in the construction of the roof was relevant to the insurer’s decision to accept the risk,” AFCA’s adjudicator says in the decision.

“Further I am not satisfied the complainant, or another reasonable person in the circumstances, would have been aware that ‘other’ was required to be selected rather than cement tiles.”

The decision is available here.