The final wash up from a wild month

It's been a month or so since we last did a memo. Even with the best of intentions and time management it simply wasn't going to happen. Since Australia Day our region has been battered by some of the wildest weather we have seen in a number of decades. Whilst the storms on the Australia Day weekend caused some havoc locally, it was the low pressure system about a month later that really did the damage.


From late Thursday February 21st through to Sunday 24th the Mid North Coast copped over a months normal rainfall. Most of this falling in the 36 hours from early Friday through to the end of Saturday. Even as late as last week a small area outside of Wingham remained isolated due to a bridge being washed away. They only gained access in the past 5 days! 415 mm of rain fell in some areas in a single day. Couple that with winds exceeding 100kms an hour and it was a recipe for disaster.

From an Insurance point of view claims for the summer had hit $670 Million even before the late February event. So this most recent hit really hurt. Interestingly though the summer will not be deemed a major concern for insurers. They plan and reserve cash for these events. The only concern is that the frequency of them is increasing which means the insurers are left with less time to restock their reserves. Thus rate increases are required.

We're not going to delve too deeply into how this works or flood mitigation issues that are finally on the governments white board. We thought for our first memo in a good month or so we'd just take stock of how we sit locally and what we were doing during this time.



For those that know how highly we value the "partnership" with our clients they would understand that this such event is a real test of our commitment and walking the walk. It's all well and good to talk up partnerships and service but when we get tested we need to respond. From Friday night 22nd February we went to work for our clients. It was around 7PM when the first call of "What do we do?" came through. During the call all we heard was wind and rain in the background. Whilst we personally were living the same storm at our home we went into action immediately. Honestly in the initial stages there is not much you can do. Baton down the hatches, keep your home and family safe and hold on. However we immediately got to work on notifying Insurers as the claims came through. This way urgent assessments could be arranged or emergency repairs authorised. We hit our office the following morning and spent most of Saturday on the phone. It was Nikki's birthday so it wasn't the way we planned on spending it but this is the industry we are in. Our business is not the largest around but within 3 days 10% of our entire client portfolio had notified us of damage.

One of our services to our clients is that we personally lodge, track and assist in settlement of your claim. Some other Insurance brokers will simply give you a 1300 number and let you sit on hold. As far as we are concerned this is not service. Particularly on this weekend when you are concerned about your property and wanting to get in and try to clean up. Our clients simply phoned us we took all the relevant details and gave initial advice then lodged the claims.

So the weekend and following week was busy getting claims lodged, assessments booked and repairs authorised. Can I honestly say most of the Insurance companies responded brilliantly! One company who we do not use alot really surprised me and has stood head and shoulders above the others. They copped a number of our claims yet were the first to authorise and settle.

So we are now in the end phase of this event. This means getting insurers to pay. Repairs are all authorised and 99% are either complete or continuing which is great. Those who are awaiting payment we are now following up the Insurers. Honestly this part is just as tricky. For the Insurers their priority is the same as ours, get the claims in the system, get them assessed and get repairs moving. As they work through all these drawing the final cheques gets shuffled back and once more we need to step in and speed these up. This is not a fault of the Insurance Companies it's purely using the resources the best possible way. Particularly during major events patience is a virtue for everyone, including us!

 

To finalise nearly 20% of our client portfolio suffered damage. Some clients had multiple. One in particular has 4 claims active from the storm on different properties. It's our role to manage this and ensure a swift and fair settlement is now reached. We even found ourselves knee deep in water with clients making sure their stock was raised for the incoming flood. When you see a companies value proposition or branding, it's important that they live up to those expectations. Our core values are to be 'Business partners in the protection of your business.' To protect the community and put you before our own thoughts of profits and prestige. This event put those values to the test. Whilst not every claim is finalised and some negotiation is ongoing, we believe this test to have been a successful demonstration of our clients value to our business. Putting you first.....