Councils mapping flood and Erosion

In Victoria and perhaps elsewhere councils are working on updating their maps in respect of flood and in some cases erosion. This I feel is a good thing as it allows home and business owners, property developers, tenants and other stakeholders including insurers to check the risk from these perils before they commit to purchase or lease.

In the case of the Yarra Ranges Council, they are proposing amendments to its Erosion Management Overlays. As a result, I have had a number of people contact me as to the effect this may have on their insurance.

I explained that insurers are more and more using such data to underwrite the risk in respect of whether they will accept the risk and if so at what price / deductible and the like.

This prompted me to do a comparison of the landslip of the 327, yes 327 different home building policies on PolicyComparison.com to see how widespread coverage is.

As you would expect, subsidence is a typical exclusion. Most policies, however, do provide cover for landslip within 72 hours of a storm. Hollard, under their Home Building and Contents – Accidental Damage policy, provide the best coverage when it comes to the period after a storm at 168 hours. Refer pages 17,18 and 37.

But be warned there are some policies that have landslip as a blanket exclusion.