Browse Forums General Discussion 1 May 21, 2018 9:27 am I'm interested to hear of any gross increases regarding Home and Content insurance premium costs after a suburb has been rezoned. In my case, April 2017 seen that my local council rezoned our area and gave it a new postcode and name. Physically, there are literally no changes; there's now just a few more names and postcodes that were once covered by 1 name and 1 postcode. Our renewal notice appears and that prompts me to make some changes to the policy, in particular – the new suburb name and postcode. To be clear, it's the same house, the same street address etc, we just happen to now have a new suburb name and postcode. The quote given in the renewal contains the original, now outdated suburb name and postcode. The premium was a little more than last years (+$~200). Speaking to the nice lady on the phone, I provide her with the new suburb name and postcode – at which point, I'm met with an "ummmmm" followed by a "hmmmm" and an obvious scratching of the scalp. She proceeds to tell me that now I've updated my suburb, due to the rezoning, the premium has gone up $~1500. Yup, you read that right – a $~1500 increase. So, what was once a $1553.19 premium, is now just over $3k (she didn't give me the exact amount). To both of our surprises, she said that it doesn't look right and she'll get her support-such-and-such to look into it. In the mean time, I start doing my own investigations.... AAMI: Online, If I retain the same original suburb name, the quote is as per the original reasonable quote. If I change my suburb name/postcode to the new rezoned details, the quote jumps up to $3178.03. Now, here's the interesting part – if I remove Flood cover [it's automatically added], the premium drops back down to the original reasonable $~1600. Conclusion is that flood cover has caused the increase only in my new suburb/postcode. If I go back to the original suburb, prior to rezoning – again, no problem. Budget Direct: I replicate the same quote as AAMI with both the new and old suburb – Budget Direct is much cheaper. However, here's the clincher. With Budget Direct, Flood cover is NOT automatically included. My initial quote with Budget Direct – $1441.49. If I add Flood cover, new quote is $6000.27 some $~4500 increase! So, off I go – I now do a quote for my original suburb name and post/code, ADD Flood cover and bammmm – we're back to normal, reasonable pricing of $~1600. So, apparently, my new suburb name and postcode are a major flood risk compared to when it was once known as another name. This is rather interesting in itself as the area I live in is the outer north western area of Melbourne Metro. There are no lakes, rivers, dams etc etc in this area. We're as flat as a tack. I'm wondering how a simple change of name and postcode now deems my area, which was the same area since 2016, is now affected by a massive increase for flood cover. Funnily, if I quote on my original suburb name, there apparently is no flood concerns – but it's the exact same area, same house, same geographical location – same everything – just a new name as of April 2017. Anyone else have any trouble? We're all pretty new in this area, so I'd say the problem is yet to be realised by many. For reference, my suburb was once Plumpton 3335. It is now Fraser Rise 3336. Re: Insurance premium increases after Rezoning 2May 21, 2018 10:57 am I just got off of the phone to AAMI after their backend/review team. Long story short, they have no idea why there's a huge increase and from all reference on their end, it shouldn't have happened. Price was matched and resolved. 1 2621 Hi there, long-time lurker but first time posting. I've bought a house 2 and a bit years ago and last year we had some major water damage on a converted pergola area… 0 7929 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 53195 |