INSURERS are bracing for property owners to lodge claims for flood damage in Queensland and New South Wales.
Suncorp-Metway, which operates brands such as AAMI and GIO, said yesterday that home owners had begun to submit claims. A spokesman said that so far few claims had been received because the flooding had affected mostly remote rural areas.
Suncorp said it would be another two weeks before it would be able to estimate the cost of the damage.
A spokesman for Insurance Australia Group said about 50 claims had been lodged in Queensland by late Monday but he emphasised that the industry would not have a good sense of the number until late this week.
Home owners in the worst-affected areas have been evacuated and are unlikely to contact insurers before they return.
The latest floods in Queensland and northern NSW cap off a difficult year for Australian insurers. Savage storms in Melbourne and Perth in March led to payouts of more than $2 billion.
IAG had further problems in its troubled British operations with a one-off charge of $327 million that caused a near-halving of profit to just $91 million.
Insurers are already bracing for the cyclone season, which is just beginning in Australia's tropical north.
The Bureau of Meteorology recently predicted above-normal cyclone activity for the coming season in Queensland.
In 2006, cyclone Larry resulted in more than $540 million in insurance losses.
