Victoria’s Fire Services Levy (FSL) Monitor Allan Fels has issued notices to 82 insurers formally requesting information about how they set the levy in the lead-up to its abolition on June 30.

He has asked the insurers how they plan to remove the levy from premiums.

“The information that insurance companies provide will be used by the Office of the Monitor to assess complaints and investigate any possible breaches of the law on price exploitation and misleading and deceptive conduct,” a statement from the monitor’s office said.

Professor Fels says he intends to use his powers to ensure policyholders are protected in the transition to a FSL charged on all property-owners and collected by local councils.

“Under the Act, insurance companies must respond to this request for information and when they do, I will be looking very closely at whether there has been any misconduct,” he says.

Zurich is the latest insurer to notify brokers that it is changing its levy collection, saying it will drop the FSL on country consumers from April 1.

Victoria applies different levies to rural and metropolitan policyholders and insurers have already started reducing their FSL on insurance policies or dropped it altogether.

Zurich’s rates for fire and industrial special risks (ISR), construction and marine are currently 30% in rural Victoria, while residential strata is charged 15%.

Metropolitan rates will fall on April 1, from 40% to 25% for fire/ISR, construction risk and marine.

The residential strata levy will remain unchanged at 15%.