Residents Risk Home Insurance
Newcastle Herald
Monday April 7, 2003
ALMOST one in five Newcastle and Central Coast residents have no home or contents insurance, a new survey has found.
One in 10 people who live in bushfire-prone areas have also admitted they have no such insurance, according to the research carried out by insurer AAMI.
And almost one in three Newcastle residents with home or contents insurance is deliberately underinsured.
The findings have been published in the 2003 AAMI Firescreen Index, which is based on an analysis of AAMI's claims data and a survey of more than 1200 Australians conducted by Sweeney Research.
AAMI's Paul Edwards said one of the more common reasons for people being underinsured was that home insurance was too expensive.
But he said that perception was in part due to the "high level of state government fees and charges" imposed on policyholders.
"Government fees and charges add $38 for every $100 in home insurance premiums in NSW," he said.
That includes a fire services levy, charged in NSW and Victoria.
Mr Edwards said the research found 86 per cent of people believed the levy should be paid by all property owners, not just those who took out insurance.
"Most people believe that charging all property owners would be a fairer way of sharing the cost of funding our fire brigades," he said.
Sixty per cent of Newcastle residents also thought the ACT's scheme for compensating the victims of the recent Canberra bushfires was unfair.
Under the scheme, uninsured homeowners who lost their homes were paid $10,000 by the ACT Government, and people who had home insurance received $5000.
"Many people feel the policy discriminated unfairly against people with insurance and believe the payments should have been uniform for all home owners," Mr Edwards said.
Saturday evening is also the most risky time of the week for a fire, according to AAMI's claims data, and cooking is the single biggest cause of fires in the home, with 55 per cent of fires starting in the kitchen. Editorial Page 8
© 2003 Newcastle Herald
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