NSW: Goodwill gesture for hailstorm victims

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-1999
NSW: Goodwill gesture for hailstorm victims

SYDNEY, April 20 AAP - Victims of Sydney's devastating hailstorm were today given a break
when insurance companies announced policyholders would not lose their no claim bonuses.

Insurance giant NRMA today estimated repair costs could top $1 billion, the biggest in
Australian history, and policyholders had suffered enough without losing their no claim
bonuses.

NRMA expects its financial exposure to the disaster to reach $300 million but vowed
premiums would not rise as a result.

Today's offer covered victims with home building, contents, fleet, boat, caravan and car
insurance, NRMA president Nicholas Whitlam said.

"No NRMA policyholder will lose a no claim bonus as a result of the hailstorm," Mr Whitlam,
whose Paddington home was damaged in the storm, told journalists here.

"Premiums will not rise as a result of this storm."

Mr Whitlam said the no claim bonus offer, expected to cost the company about $10 million,
had nothing to do with the negative publicity the NRMA received after flooding in Wollongong
last year.

He said the NRMA had received 12,500 car claims and 7,500 more were expected, costing $100
million, as a result of the one-in-one-hundred-year storm.

The average cost of each car claim was $6,000.

About 9,000 home claims, each worth about $10,000, had been lodged.

NRMA chief executive officer Eric Dodd said the hailstorm was likely to rate as the most
expensive natural disaster in Australia's history.

"The largest at this stage is the Newcastle earthquake, total cost of which was estimated
at around about $1 billion - our estimates at the moment are that this current storm could
well approach that figure," Mr Dodd said.

He said the NRMA would allow policyholders with other insurers, affected by the storm, to
transfer their policies to NRMA without losing their no claim bonus.

Insurer AAMI said it decided last week its policyholders would not lose their no claim
bonuses as a result of storm damage.

The company estimates it will pay out about $50 million to more than 8,000 home and car
policyholders.

GIO said because its policies were structured differently from NRMA, nobody with house
insurance would lose any discount.

"Our premiums are just not structured that way and three-quarters of our motor vehicle
customers are what we call gold customers and they won't be affected either," a GIO
spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for HIH, which includes insurers FAI and CIC, said the companies had taken
action to ensure there would be no impact on no claim bonuses.

Meanwhile, the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia (ADFA) warned people against
handling the material during clean up operations.

"One in every three houses built before 1982 may have asbestos in them and there is no
minimum safe level of exposure," ADFA president Ella Sweeney said.

AAP shm/sb/bm/br

KEYWORD: HAILSTORM POLICY NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.