Insurers defy fire veto on policies

NEW homeowners looking to buy insurance policies in the 62 suburbs of greater Townsville under an embargo due to bushfire risk still have access to at least two providers.

The Townsville Bulletin yesterday reported buyers in the postcodes of 4811, 4815, 4816 and 4817 would be unable to buy new home insurance policies until the threat of a bushfire was no longer evident, though it was unclear which insurers had embargoes in place.

Suncorp, the region’s largest insurer, confirmed it did not have any bushfire embargoes in place for Townsville, though it did have them in place for areas currently impacted including Peregian Beach, Applethorpe, Beechmont and O’reilly.

Bradley Heath from Sure Insure, North Queensland’s newest insurer, said all of its new policies had 72-hour wait clause for bushfires, but overall the company didn’t believe the current situation warranted an embargo.

“If you want to take out a policy we’re not stopping you,” he said.

Insurer QBE confirmed it did have embargoes in place, as was common practice when an extreme weather event is close by, but customers were encouraged to call them direct as individual addresses may not be impacted and cover could still be accessed.

RACQ spokeswoman Renee Smith confirmed the company had policy embargoes in a number of areas across Queensland and northern NSW due to the risk of bushfires, including postcodes 4811, 4815, 4816 and 4817.

“Our team is monitoring bushfire alerts 24 hours a day to keep across the situation,” she said.

She confirmed that in the past five years RACQ had not put an embargo in place in the Townsville area for bushfire risk.

A total of 62 suburbs come under the umbrella of postcodes 4811, 4815, 4816 and 4817. Thirty-nine of those suburbs are included in postcode 4816 alone.

Mr Heath said Sure Insure rated policies at an individual level and not on postcodes because it was a “crude way of defining an area”.

Ms Smith said postcodes were used because bushfires could be unpredictable.