In short:
Floods have devastated parts of Australia in recent years, but for some survivors having to deal with their insurance companies has also been described as traumatising.
Latrobe residents share their stories about the deadly 2016 flood with a federal government inquiry into insurers’ responses into flood disasters.
What’s next?
Many flood-impacted residents want insurers to use simpler language and for policy holders to be better informed about insurance terminology. The inquiry committee will report its findings in October.
The 2016 flooding in northern Tasmania was a natural disaster with a tragic human toll.
But in the months that followed some of the surviving victims were exposed to another trauma.
As the flood waters receded, a battle with insurance companies was beginning.
And for some, more than eight years later, that battle continues.
The fight between insurance companies and policy holders has drawn in the federal government, which is running an inquiry into insurers’ responses to claims made after the 2022 floods in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.
The town of Latrobe was also inundated in October that year when the Mersey River flooded, but it is the deadly 2016 flood that still looms large for residents.
Mayor Peter Freshney said he ensured the inquiry would hear residents’ stories from 2016, too.
‘Your life’s work going past you’
Compared to some, Latrobe dairy farmer Geoff Heazlewood’s post-flood recovery was relatively positive, but he had to fight for it and he was not compensated for everything he believed he was owed.
Mr Heazlewood and his wife Anne live on the banks of the Mersey River on a property, aptly named Merseybank, that has been in Ms Heazlewood’s family for generations.
Though the farm had seen several floods before, it was a single moment during the 2016 flood that brought home the enormity of the devastation to him.
It happened while Mr Heazlewood stood in his kitchen.
“I looked out and I could see the first four or five cows floating past. That sort of brought me undone,” he said.
“You see, in a way, your life’s work going past you.”
The floodwaters peaked at about knee-height in their home. Anything outside on the ground, including livestock feed and machinery, was lost.
Mr Heazlewood said he believed the entire property was adequately insured. The couple had been paying insurances for more than 40 years, and met annually with their broker to make sure this was the case.
But when it came time to make a claim, the couple’s insurer thought otherwise.
In the end, a two-decade-old document that detailed a flood-cover premium, tucked away in a filing cabinet spared by the flood, broke the stalemate.
“The first thing they said was, ‘Can we have that?’ I said, ‘No, but you can have a copy of it,'” Mr Heazlewood said.
The paperwork was key to his claim being partially successful.
Mr Heazlewood’s insurer claimed the couple should have received a letter about a decade prior advising him flood insurance was no longer a part of his coverage.
He claimed he had never seen that letter, and the insurer could not produce a copy of it.
Eventually, the insurance company agreed to pay for repairs to multiple houses on the property.
Muddy waters of insurance premiums
Florist Felicity Mainwaring said she has not received compensation for the damage and loss suffered to her business after the 2016 floods.
Her claim for water damage to her business on Latrobe’s main road was unsuccessful, as was an internal dispute resolution with her insurer.
More than eight years on she says she is still tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
“The amount on my claim … came close to the amount of insurance I had paid over nearly seven years,” she said.
“They offer a service, I pay for the service, and I don’t get the service. Something is very wrong.”
Hopes inquiry will improve industry
Andrew Hall, chief executive of industry body Insurance Council of Australia, said Australian insurers pay out about 96 per cent of claims, but hoped the inquiry could show the industry where it can and should improve.
He said customers need to be properly versed in the details of their policy before they need it, particularly given Australia’s changing climate.
“People should, on an annual basis, not just look at the premium renewal notice but have a look and make sure they’re covered for the perils they’ve got around them,” he said.
He said the Australian insurance industry has processes in place to ensure policies are upheld appropriately.
Customers contesting an insurance claim can take their case to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
Both Mr Heazlewood and Ms Mainwaring said they want future flood disaster victims to be spared the distress they have experienced when dealing with insurance companies.
They want insurers to use simpler language and for policy holders to be better informed about insurance terminology.
Cr Freshney said the process of making an insurance claim should not itself be traumatising.
“That’s the last thing you need to struggle through when you’ve been through a traumatic situation like a natural disaster,” he said.
The inquiry committee is expected to report its findings in October.
