General Insurance Ombudsman John Price expects to resolve quickly about 80 outstanding claims against insurers resulting from the January 2011 Victorian floods.

Mr Price and three other members of the Financial Ombudsman Service visited about 20 flood damage sites at Charlton in western Victoria late last month.

“Following the completed exchange of all materials we will be able to resolve or issue determinations on the outstanding cases shortly, ” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

The cases have been brought to the ombudsman by lawyers Maurice Blackburn, who stepped in after insurers rejected many claims. The insurers say that while damage caused by flash flooding or storms is covered in policies, riverine flood events are not.

Maurice Blackburn is not mounting a class action, but is bringing about 80 cases to the ombudsman where individuals feel insurers have treated them unfairly.

A Maurice Blackburn associate handling the actions, Michael Bates, told insuranceNEWS.com.au that if the actions do not succeed, claimants will not pay the law firm anything.

“For those that succeed we’ve put a cap on legal costs of $10,000,” he said. “Since we went down this path of taking cases to the ombudsman, about five insurers have settled.”

Peter Noble, a flood recovery worker with East Wimmera Health, says that so far “probably about 20 to 30% of flood claims” in the Charlton region have been paid out.

RACV Insurance has made ex gratia payments of $10,000-$25,000 to some property-owners.

Many property-owners holding policies with CGU and GIO are believed to have also been paid out. Most of the outstanding claims are with Wesfarmers, Elders and AAMI.

Mr Bates says the cases are nearly complete “but we’ve received a further hydrologist’s report from insurers which we need to consider”. He expects the issue to be resolved with the ombudsman in two to three months.

The Charlton floods are believed to have been a one-in-300 year occurrence. At the flood’s height, about 80% of Charlton and surrounds was under water.