Better news, hopefully they also prioritise according to the risk of further damage. In our area those whose roofs had suffered only dent impacts and remained largely water tight were waiting well past 12 months before they saw any progress.
What about ongoing loss? I am not making any electricity or saving much water to my tanks.
Something you might need to ask your assessor or insurer. Those with PV panels still had functioning systems. The one nearby Solar HWS was repaired long before the roof repair. No one mentioned payments for consequential losses.
Similar to your situation severe damage to our home could impact the ability to collect rainwater, and generate Solar PV. Our policy is due for renewal next month. I’ll be looking for answers as it is something that we’ve not thought about. Knowing the policy provides for alternate accommodation it might not be covered?
P.S.
Solar Quotes has some suggestions.
Choice’s insurance review team might have some further knowledge? If one could offer some feedback @BrendanMays it might prove of value?
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I have 2 H+C policies to pay shortly and its the normal this time of year fight. Its funny, house are 250km apart and $150k in value apart with 2 different insurance companies, but renewal was within $10 of each other. I then upped the excess and they were then the same price again. While this may be explained by the variables they need to consider, its still an interesting coincidence. The other thing, Allianz who I have one policy with, they are making it difficult to make changes. They posted my renewal only 2 weeks of the due date, I can’t make changes on line, I called their customer service to make the changes, but they weren’t included in the renewal. Is this all on purpose so you pay the increased amount without question. And by the way, its a 18% increase this year.
Are the two houses basically the same size and structure? Because the amount insured is probably determined by the insurance company estimate of cost to rebuild, and if they’re much the same size and type, that’d probably be pretty much the same for both.
Looking to the progressive survey results in the OP should I feel we are doing better then most?
Just received our H+C insurance renewal notice from Suncorp. The total insured value has increased by 3%. The premium increase 21%. Not due till March fortunately hence time to look again at other insurers. The premium now nearly $3000.
Note:
Last year the premium increase of 36% was not acceptable. The value of the policy had increased 7% typical of building cost inflation at the time. We reassessed our contents (a reduced value) and increased the excess on both home and contents. This reduced the premium to a more modest increase of 8%. A cost of living saving of more than $600, coming with slightly lesser value from the policy.
Why last year and again this year the costs of the policy have quoted such large increases, is not easy to justify?
Suncorp and others in Aug 23 were warning of further increases of 10% for the coming year. These are in addition to those over the prior 12 months which delivered average increases of 14.2% (ABS).
As consumers there is zero, nil, no transparency as to which and by how much factors specific to our property have driven the increase. Hence there is little opportunity to consider whether the property risk factors are reliably assessed, or where property changes might deliver better outcomes.
It will also depend on IF the factors are considered specific to your property. Not all insurers will consider all factors, such as the exact materials of your build and any disaster mitigation measures.
Some insurers offer a guide as to what factors they consider, but these are not mandatory and vary in how specific they are. For example, an insurer may state they consider ‘location’ without specifying what the location factors are (suburb, proximity to roads and intersections, natural features etc)
Some will consider this a beat up and others an expose but reality is an insurance policy is exactly what it states in the policy document for that year. No more and no less. There is zero for loyalty and many people don’t get that. Testing the market annually should be as routine as filing taxes. Common words do not always have ‘common definitions’ in the world of insurance and that causes confusion for many. Reading the policy documents on and between the lines should be part of it.
As has been posted already, much of the rating system is opaque and used for justification on a ‘trust me’ basis by the underwriters. Reports suggest profits are the first consideration and then the premiums are adjusted to cover payouts and reinsurances. That seems the dominant business model.
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