Council acts to help reduce insurance costs

Gosford Council will share detailed flood mapping data with the insurance industry to assist with developing pricing premiums to better suit individual property risk.

The council has started discussions with the Insurance Council of Australia in response to residents complaining about increasing insurance costs resulting from flood risk classification.

Gosford Council's director environment and planning Ms. Danielle Dickson said that when insurance companies have limited information available, the insurer must charge based on uncertainty and a worst case scenario.

She said that the cost of insurance relied heavily on the availability of detailed flood information, such as the floor level of properties that occupied the floodplain.

"Now that council can share our detailed information, insurers will have more specific data.

"For example, although an address is on a floodplain, it may only be exposed to 1:100 year flooding at shallow depths.

"This means a premium can be calculated based on this lower level of risk, reducing the cost for individual property owners and basing premiums on more accurate levels of individual property risk.

"It just makes sense to us that this comprehensive technical data is shared with the public and the insurance industry to the benefit of our ratepayers and residents," Ms Dickson said.

Media release, 15 Oct 2013

Danielle Dickson, Gosford Council