Chance to talk: Rochester residents came out to support each other during the flood insurance inquiry in Rochester last Thursday. Photos: Aidan Briggs
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Aidan Briggs
Rochester residents were given the microphone on Thursday afternoon.
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Using their allotment of time at the flood insurance inquiry hearing, they described their harrowing experiences with insurance companies in the aftermath of October 2022.
One of those people was Shellei Sibberas, who talked distressingly about the situation she still found herself in.
"The RACV was atrocious. We were lied to and we were deceived,” she said.
Ms Sibberas claims her insurance company would not supply her with any storage and that anything she had managed to salvage after the floods has since been lost.
Community support: Shellei Sibberas gave an emotional statement at the Rochester Flood Insurance Inquiry.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Ms Sibberas said she was still living with her partner and her adult son in two caravans and it was taking a toll on their mental health.
“Two weeks before we needed to leave the emergency relief centre, (the insurance company) gave us $60,000 to buy two caravans to live in for over 12 months,” she said.
“It’s just not possible. I ended up spending $80,000 of my own money to get two vans to live in which, to this day, we are still living in. It has caused plenty of mental health illnesses within my husband and myself.
“I mentally cannot do this any more. We were insured with these people for 29 years. This is a wonderful community, and it is only this community that has gotten us through this.”
Hard: Rayden Webb was one of the residents who talked about the allegedly deceitful conduct of insurance companies.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Sarah Thompson told the inquiry about her experience with insurers and said that despite her extensive education, she still found it confusing and hard to navigate.
“I have to say our experience of the insurance system was overwhelming and I think the best way to describe it is that it was dementing,” she said.
“We settled our claim … spending hundreds of hours doggedly pouring over engineer reports and the policy disclosure statement. I even read a legal textbook.
Insurance nightmare: Allan MacDonald told the inquiry about his experience with his insurance company.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
“We had three brokers, two loss adjusters and two contacts at the insurance agency. Much critical information was lost in translation … and we really didn’t know who was on our side.
“We’ve got evidence of the loss adjuster engaging in both misleading and intimidatory behaviour. We had to engage an independent engineer … he found multiple critical issues with the loss adjuster’s engineering report.”
Ms Thompson said she and others in the community were concerned that many people with less capacity to understand the system were taken advantage of.
“I’m the CFO of a large government organisation. I have a post-graduate education and relevant skills and I’ve got resources and extensive networks, but I still found it nearly impossible to navigate the system,” she said.
“We’re very concerned that many people in our community — good, hard-working people — may not have had the bandwidth to pursue a fair claim.”
Dr Daniel Mulino, who is chairing the committee undertaking the inquiry, said the testimony from residents had been valuable.
"One of the points of contrast, I think, between this and some of the other important reviews of the (insurance) industry is that they were largely a desktop based on data, based on interviewing experts,” he said.
“This parliamentary inquiry will involve all of that, but it also is going into communities with a total of about 14 days of public hearings.
“When you hear from ordinary people about the struggles they’ve faced, you hear about all the details of each of their stories, and that’s where the rubber hits the road.”
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