Property owners in Victoria's alpine region are anxious about the bushfire season after last year's bushfires caused insurance premiums to increase by as much as 400%, making it difficult for residents to get coverage.
John Perks, who runs the Arlberg Hotel at Mount Buller, said he still took out insurance despite a threefold increase in costs.
“I haven't slept for nights and nights because it's such a major issue if you really care about your business and your life. Everything I've got in the world is in this building. I've been here 33 years, and my insurance has always been around the same – $65,000 a year,” Perks told ABC.
Perks said his brokers are trying to find a suitable policy for months, but it might still cost him as much as $240,000.
“It's just diabolical, and no-one can seem to help. I've lost 95% of my income this year – as has everybody else – and now you're looking at this huge increase,” he continued.
Paul George, the managing director of MGA Insurance Brokers, said they’re trying to find insurance for alpine resort businesses.
“We're seeing clients that are in pretty dire situations. Post the fires, we've found everything's really tightened up to the point where we've found some properties are almost uninsurable,” he told ABC.
“I certainly think the bushfires we had in 2019-20 made the market aware of just how many large assets are actually in these regional areas, and obviously, there was some fairly significant properties damaged.”
He added that many of their clients refused to renew their policy in June: “When you're seeing that for buildings that should be relatively easy to insure, that's when we really knew that we had some real issues on our hands. We've sort of got to the point now where we're having conversations with the customers two months out to set expectations.”
