It pays to be insured
A few dollars a week is not much when you consider how much it could mean in an emergency
EACH year in Queensland, about 38,000 homes suffer significant storm or cyclone damage.
Of those, it is estimated five per cent have no home building insurance, and seven per cent of home owners have no contents cover, leaving themselves at risk of financial ruin in the event of a destructive storm.
The statistics are even worse in the case of rental properties with only a third of tenants bothering to take out contents insurance.
Campbell Fuller from the Insurance Council of Australia said the widespread nature of storms and cyclones meant most Queensland home owners were potentially in the firing line and recent events proved just how widespread the impact could be.
Cyclones Oswald (2013) and Debbie (2017) generated total insured losses of $1.565 billion and accounted for 10 per cent of all claims lodged in those years.
One of the biggest lessons learned from recent events, is the importance of knowing the details of an insurance policy – in regards to inclusions and exclusions.
As many homeowners discovered after the 2011 floods, not all policies are equal and insurers tend to take a different view of damage from water that rises, as opposed to water that comes down.
A post-event review of insurance claims by the Queensland Flood Commission found only Suncorp provided automatic flood cover, resulting in 98 per cent of claims being accepted.
In the case of other insurers, 61 per cent of claims were accepted and 39 per cent declined.
As storm and cyclone season gets into full swing, Suncorp’s head of Consumer Portfolio Julian Benton said it was wise to do an “insurance health check” so there were no nasty surprises after a major event.
He said as a first step, check you have the right sum insured on your policy.
“In the event of a significant or total loss, the payout you will receive is limited to the sum that’s insured,” he said.
“It’s worth making sure it is appropriate to your needs, especially if you have to rebuild your house.”
He said one of the biggest pitfalls for longterm home owners, was forgetting to update their policy to reflect changes in building codes.
“Building codes do change over time and the cost of rebuilding a home can cost more than it did originally when it was built,” he said.
“It’s good to check if that’s adequate, and that can involve talking to your insurer, checking with the local council and State Emergency Service and talking to builders and getting an estimate of what a rebuild would cost.”