The Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre (CLC) in Katoomba has officially launched new resources to help the community navigate the complex issue of bushfires and insurance.
The resources – a series of fact sheets called Bushfires and Insurance: What You Need To Know and a video titled Bushfires and Insurance: Sharing Residents’ Stories from the Blue Mountains 2013 Fires – were launched at the legal centre’s AGM at the Mountain Heritage Hotel, Katoomba on Thursday, November 26.
Elizabeth Evatt CLC managing principal solicitor, Helen Boyton, said the resources were borne out of the experience of the October 2013 Blue Mountains bushfires, which destroyed more than 200 homes and precipitated over 1700 insurance claims.
“In the 2013 bushfires, around 80 per cent of people who lost their homes were under-insured,” she said.
“What that means is that the insurance cover they had was not adequate to cover their losses, and in many cases to rebuild their homes.”
Elizabeth Evatt CLC operations officer Tina Napier said many people were unaware that if their home burned down, they could be required to rebuild to a much higher standard than their original home.
“Since the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, new standards and building codes have been introduced across Australia which may mean that certain materials such as timber can no longer be used, and that additional fire safety features such as shutters and rainwater tanks may be required,” she said.
One local who discovered this first-hand is Hazelbrook resident and Labor candidate for Macquarie Susan Templeman, who lost her family home in Emma Parade, Winmalee.
“When we built our home in 1991, we insured our home for what it cost to build back then,” said Ms Templeman. “But it was built on poles and made of western red cedar, and now that we are designated ‘flame zone’ we can’t rebuild with the same materials. So we aren’t insured for enough to cover the rebuild.”
More than two years on, the Templeman family home is yet to be rebuilt and the insurance no longer covers the cost of the renting their ‘temporary’ home in Hazelbrook – a situation the Templemans share with many others who lost their homes in 2013.
Ms Templeman welcomed the CLC’s work highlighting issues around bushfires and insurance, which recently included free public information sessions in Blackheath, Katoomba, Lithgow and Springwood.
The project was funded under the Blue Mountains Flexible Community Grants Program, with the RFS, Financial Rights Legal Centre and Legal Aid NSW assisting with presentations.
To access the factsheets or video, contact the CLC on 4782 4155 or 1300 363 967.
