As the death toll climbs toward and almost certainly well beyond 200, difficulty in accessing properties affected by the Victorian bushfires is holding claims technicians back from estimating the extent of damage and loss.

On Friday afternoon the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) tally was “a very early” 4100 claims, with no dollar value as yet.

An IAG spokesman also says it is still too early to estimate the claims bill due to difficulties in accessing properties. No figure on the number of claims across the group is available at this stage.

But Ben Bessell, GM Claims at subsidiary company CGU, says more than 800 claims have been received by his company so far.

Earlier in the week, Allianz Australia said a total industry insured damage figure of about $1 billion could not be ruled out.

GM Corporate Affairs Nicholas Scofield said that as at noon on Thursday, Allianz had received 533 claims valued at over $55 million, which is more than a doubling of the 220 claims and more than a tripling of the $15 million reported on Monday.

“We expect claims numbers to further increase over the coming week, particularly over the weekend when some of our customers and assessors are expected to be able to enter areas where access is currently still restricted,” he said.

The total number of properties destroyed has jumped to 1831 from 1069, according to Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin on Friday. The area burned out is estimated at 95,000 hectares, although several fires are still burning out of control but posing no immediate threat to towns.

Insurers have donated significant amounts of money to the bushfire appeal, and claims centres have been set up in towns where most of the estimated 7000 homeless have gathered.

On Saturday ICA confirmed insurers have paid 3500 emergency cash payments under building or contents policies ranging from $5000 to $25,000. They have also paid 440 cash settlements for vehicles destroyed in the bushfires. ICA says loss adjusters are “slowly getting access to properties” and it’s anticipated adjusters will be granted widespread access to properties this week.

Insurance company representatives posted to emergency relief centres reported little activity as most policyholders elect to contact their insurer through normal channels.

But not everything has been positive. Politicians led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have warned insurers to act quickly to settle claims even as the industry sets up sophisticated disaster response mechanisms.

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