The federal parliamentary inquiry into the insurance response to natural disasters will hold public hearings in Queensland, NSW, rural Victoria and WA as well as Canberra and Sydney later this year.

Committee Chairman Graham Perrett told insuranceNEWS.com.au the inquiry is seeking input from people affected by disasters in different regions to assess how insurers have responded.

The inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs will investigate claims-processing arrangements, dispute resolution processes and the impact of third parties such as lawyers and hydrologists.

The inquiry’s terms of reference include whether insurers gave consumers accurate and useful information about their right to make a claim and whether the time taken to process a claim was reasonable.

Mr Perrett, whose electorate was affected by the Brisbane floods, says the committee will investigate the length of time taken to process claims and the “often-widespread mismatch between what people thought their insurance policies covered and their actual entitlement”.

He says 5200 properties in his electorate had water over the floorboards and he encountered a range of responses as he travelled around the area, noting some policyholders had reported a speedy response and wonderful service from their insurers.

Submissions to the inquiry must be made by July 15 and Mr Perrett says some have already been received. The inquiry has also set up an online survey for policyholders who have made a disaster-related claim in the past five years to comment on their experience.