The federal parliamentary inquiry into the insurance industry’s response to natural disasters is seeking submissions by July 15 and will visit affected regions later this year.

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.

Committee Chairman Graham Perrett, an ALP MP whose electorate of Moreton was affected by the Brisbane floods, says the committee will visit several affected areas and hold public hearings in the second half of this year. The committee expects to report early next year.

“The committee is concerned about the length of time it has taken for the insurance industry to process many claims, and about the claims-handling process more generally,” he said.

“We are also concerned about the widespread mismatch between what people thought their insurance policies covered and the outcomes of their claims.”

The inquiry’s terms of reference include investigating 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.

It will consider the role of third parties such as hydrologists and law firms and the effectiveness of internal dispute resolution and the industry’s code of practice. It will also examine external dispute resolution, including the Financial Ombudsman Service and free legal advice provided by Legal Aid and community legal centres.

The committee launched an online survey on June 10 to gauge community concerns relating to the inquiry. The survey gives policyholders who have made a disaster-related claim in the past five years the opportunity to comment on the coverage of their insurance policy, the adequacy of the information provided, and how the claim was handled.