The blacklisting of a postcode area in Cairns was one of the issues raised at a recent insurance forum hosted by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC).
The forum was attended by some 25 Far Northerners whose main concern was about insurance companies refusing to insure houses in the 4870 postcode area, which covers all of Cairns City, Redlynch, Earlville, Kamerunga, and about 20 other suburbs.
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“I’ve spoken to three insurance companies who refused to insure the 4870 postcode,” Stratford pensioner Doug Harper said in The Cairns Post report. “In a ten-year period my insurance has gone up from $924 to $3,501. When you’ve got rates, insurance, and electricity ... it becomes unsustainable.”
ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said “there's clearly an issue” in Northern Australia that would take a long time to solve.
“It appears there are less insurers, so we’re looking into why that is, what the barriers are for finding insurers and how to drive competition,” she said. “We will be looking into this for a number of years. We’re determined to reduce insurance costs in Northern Australia.”
Erik Adriaanse, Strata Community Association chief executive, said North Queenslanders can't wait for years for a solution.
“We support the ACCC inquiry into insurance premiums, but if strata property owners have to sit through another three cyclone seasons before they can afford appropriate cover, the federal government risks leaving them to financial ruin if a cyclone does cross their path,” Adriaanse said in The Cairns Post report.
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