The Association of Insurance Building and Engineering Consultants has suggested three ways to improve the recently launched best practice standard for expert reports.

It urges the Insurance Council of Australia to consider a three-tiered system of reporting; introduce report benchmarking; and use “clear and concise” scope of works documentation.

On repair scopes, the association says the parliamentary inquiry into the 2022 floods also flagged this as an area for improvement, but it notes the best practice standard makes no reference to it. The standard was released in August, before the inquiry delivered its report in October.

The association says developing accurate repair scopes and methodologies for insurers holds challenges due to factors including lack of clearly visible damage and site accessibility.

It says scopes should be “transparent, upholding probity by considering and acknowledging unknown risks while developing a repair methodology consistent with construction industry standards and legislation”. They should be written in chronological order and in a way a layperson can understand.

The association also proposes that scopes be classified as preliminary or comprehensive. 

“Persons undertaking scoping for preliminary or comprehensive classifications must hold qualifications and technical experience relevant to the scoping being produced.

“Where scoping resides outside the person’s undertaking level of expertise, this should be shown clearly, with recommendations to engage the relevant expert.”

On the proposed three-tiered system of reporting, the association says it is designed to consider the level of expertise an individual has.

The association says the recommendations have been welcomed by ICA. See them here.

From Insurance News magazine: We analyse the federal flood inquiry's final report, and examine what it means for Australia's future resilience