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I attended a wind energy conference many many years ago (about 20 years ago?). One of the ‘side’ presenters was from the insurance industry and spoke about the longterm changes in insurance claims along the east coast of Australia. He didn’t go in to science at all, but just quoted insurance data. He said that the industry was seeing the prevalence of severe storm and weather events slowly move down the east coast of Australia. So, for example, cyclone damages were being claimed in areas further south than previously claimed.
The concern that the insurance industry had back then (remember this was 20 years ago) was that housing was built to withstand cyclones in the traditional cyclone areas, however the cyclone activity was moving towards areas that were not traditionally seen as cyclone prone, thus the housing wasn’t being built to cyclone standards. The speculation was that many houses built in areas just outside the traditional cyclone areas might end up being uninsurable in the future.
This presentation did plant the seed in my mind of the idea that it won’t be governments that will drive the world to adapt to climate change, but rather it might be the insurance industry. Once risks increase, they’ll effectively increase the premiums to cover that risk. Effectively some areas will become ‘uninsurable’ or the premiums will be prohibitively expensive and people will move to cheaper areas. The ‘free market’ at work you could say.
I can speculate that the automotive insurance industry has also been experiencing changes in their risk profiles too. Hail, bush fire, storm and floods claims have probably increased over time. The weather-damage claims are relatively few, but when they do happen they hit a large number of people and produce a large number of high value claims in the one area. The increase in car prices (particularly secondhand ones) would also have a significant impact on the cost of insurance.
It does make me wonder if the insurance industry is going through the risk profiles of their customers and being more specific with their policy costings? So, for example, if the frequency of hail damage, or floods/storms, or bushfires claims have increased in your area, then the premiums have been adjusted accordingly? Some insurers might hike the premiums across the board to compensate, and some others will target the premium increases to particular areas to discourage the renewal of policies (and reduce their risk of mass claims).
But to the OP, definitely shop around. There will probably be better offers out there. Also, ask your insurance company why your premium has gone up so much (i.e. is it the car or the area that you live in?).
Well when the RBA spends all its time running cover for corporate price gouging while tut tutting about a nonexistent wage price spiral you can’t expect corporations to be too concerned about their price gouging.mine all went up in price this year but not 50%
everyone is cashing in on the corporate greed crisis and it really makes you wonder where will they decide to stop
One of my pastimes is watching YouTube restoration videos of people buying flood damaged supercars for 1/10 the original price. Not too sure about the laws there, but here a salt water damaged car would be classified an unrepairable write-off.
Tiled roofs are an abomination that should be banned. The hail storm that went through Springfield QLD a few years back destroyed many homes. All because the covenant of the estate forced tiled roofs on all houses!you dont see too many tiled rooves going up