Our campaign to fix the definitions of “fire” in insurance policies has racked up some recent wins. Back in early 2020, we were fighting for a better deal in insurance for people affected by, or at risk of, bushfires. The good news is that, since the start of this year, both AAMI and Coles Insurance have updated their definitions to be more reasonable and consistent with what we were asking for.
Before the Black Summer bushfires, there was no consistency across insurance companies. Some of the definitions of fire were terrible. We decided we needed to take action to make sure the devastation people had faced wasn’t compounded by poor-quality definitions of fire. One policy we found stated that it didn’t cover damage caused by “heat, ash, soot and smoke when your home or contents have not caught on fire unless it is caused by a burning building within 10 metres of the insured address”.
We’ll continue to fight for better quality insurance, especially as climate change increases the risk of extreme weather events.
