Victoria’s Yarra Ranges council is urging insurers to continue to provide rental assistance and help ensure customers rebuild to current standards two years after damaging storms felled large trees and caused widespread property damage. 

Insurers have told some residents they can only rebuild “like for like,” Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child says, which will not meet current building standards or the requirements to access building permits and future insurance. 

“Yarra Ranges council is calling on insurance companies to do the right thing - support our residents with their rebuilding journey and continue to provide rental assistance and allow people to build to current standards, and not like for like,” Mr Child said.  

The severe storm with extremely high winds struck in June 2021. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says the catastrophe produced insured losses of $313.19 million from 34,372 claims, of which just under half were domestic building claims. ICA says 94.5% of claims are now closed and CEO Andrew Hall has said 88% of claims were closed a year after the event.  

The Yarra Ranges council posted a two-year anniversary statement on its website saying insurance issues are still a major concern for residents. 

Almost 200 properties were damaged, 81 were uninhabitable, tens of thousands of trees fell, blocking roads and bringing down telephone and powers lines, leaving thousands without heating and phone or internet connection for weeks.  

Of the damaged properties, 13 were demolished and only two have planning permission to rebuild.

There have been 65 approvals for repairs to dwellings including decks, verandas, outbuildings, garages, carports, retaining walls and fences. 

Mr Child said it was hard to believe some Yarra Ranges residents were still unable to start the rebuilding process, “in particular due to insurance issues”.  

“It is a known fact that it takes more than 12 months to rebuild and yet this, for most, is the amount of time given from insurance companies for rental assistance,” he said.   

Build quality and problems with building surveyors were other issues.   

Mr Hall has previously said claims closure rates “have been a little slower than we would normally like to achieve” in recent years due to problems with trade and labour supplies. 

"Short-term accommodation is very hard to get, materials, trades and labour have been very difficult. I know sounds like we are giving excuses, I know things can be very difficult for people, and we try for that not to be the case,” he said on the first anniversary of the Yarra Ranges catastrophe. 

“There have been literally thousands of claims paid out and people put back in their homes, they’ve had temporary accommodation covered, rental cars provided. Policies do respond.  

“In the overwhelming majority of insurance cases in this country ... we have largely responded the way we need to respond and looked after the community.” 

After the storm, the ICA activated on-the-ground deployment of disaster specialists and worked with Emergency Management Victoria and Bushfire Recovery Victoria to coordinate the disaster recovery effort. 

The General Insurance Code of Practice states that when a claim arises from an extraordinary catastrophe, an insurer will make a decision in writing within 12 months of receiving a claim, or explain internal complaints processes.