In the aftermath of this summer’s horrific floods, the head at the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) now says residential building in flood-prone areas should be banned.
Chief executive officer Rob Whelan was reported by Australian Property News: "Insurers have moved to make necessary changes on issues such as a standard definition for flood; governments must also make changes on issues they are responsible for such as land use, flood mitigation and building standards.”
Through a Roy Morgan survey of 1600 respondents, ICA says it found that Australians felt there was a need for a national database of flood-risk properties, a standard flood definition across all flood policies and a requirement for all insurers to outline what is and isn't covered in a policy.
He said that of the survey respondents, 42 per cent don't believe insurers should pay out claims where households had not signed up for flood cover. Thirty seven per cent of respondents believed insurers should pay river flood claims and 21 per cent were undecided.
Earlier this month the ICA released updated figures on how the general industry has responded to the task of assessing over 118,000 insurance claims received as a result of the QLD floods and Cyclone Yasi.
Whelan said: “As at 5 May members of the ICA have received approximately 118,000 insurance claims with a reserved insurable value of over $3.6 billion for QLD floods and Cyclone Yasi.”
The Insurance industry had already paid out some $960 million in settlement of flood and cyclone claims and continued to do so at a rate of $12 million per working day.
Images: The Australian
