Brisbane Floods
- Thread starter Peterw
- Start date
You may want to tell your friend that the 250k may well be within the "ATO" Tax Laws,but that will come back too the wording on the paper work that came with the $$$$,imho any investors would want to be carefull ,the Labor Government gave us nothing,BCC gave us 200 bucks free water on both properties,one property is gone,one now is rented , and the insurance company we are now with covers all floods no inbetweens,and as it was a lowset,if it goes under again next time just sit back and let some else fix up the mess..
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Just thought I'd let you all know this is still going and turning into a real saga.
The Ombudsman met with both parties back in January, gave directions on how he views various points in dispute, and encouraged us to go off and negotiate on that basis. We felt confident, based on that meeting, that it would all be quickly resolved in our favour. (I'm still trying to hold on to my optimism, despite this experience.
) Wrong!
So now we're preparing a submission to the Ombudsman for them to make a decision, which has been a huge amount of paperwork - engineering reports; builders' reports; quotes, quotes, and more quotes; statutory declarations... but I'm now just chasing two last pieces of paper, and should be able to submit our case within a couple of weeks, and we're told we'll have a decision in 3-4 months.
By the second anniversary of the flood, we may have a decision as to what's happening, though it'll certainly be closer to 2.5 years before we have any hope of moving back home.
The Ombudsman met with both parties back in January, gave directions on how he views various points in dispute, and encouraged us to go off and negotiate on that basis. We felt confident, based on that meeting, that it would all be quickly resolved in our favour. (I'm still trying to hold on to my optimism, despite this experience.
) Wrong!So now we're preparing a submission to the Ombudsman for them to make a decision, which has been a huge amount of paperwork - engineering reports; builders' reports; quotes, quotes, and more quotes; statutory declarations... but I'm now just chasing two last pieces of paper, and should be able to submit our case within a couple of weeks, and we're told we'll have a decision in 3-4 months.
By the second anniversary of the flood, we may have a decision as to what's happening, though it'll certainly be closer to 2.5 years before we have any hope of moving back home.
Perp, I am so sorry to hear of your ongoing issues.
I know you have been quiet on the list and feared that the house rebuild was not going so well.
But even more importantly, I have been hoping that your young family are dealing with the two flooding episodes so close together and not finding things too difficult. Though being away from home for so long is definitely not helping things.
Marg
I know you have been quiet on the list and feared that the house rebuild was not going so well.
But even more importantly, I have been hoping that your young family are dealing with the two flooding episodes so close together and not finding things too difficult. Though being away from home for so long is definitely not helping things.
Marg
This link may help,i had a listen yesterday to what they had to say and all the questions asked,but noone could answer my question,"Where is the money to pay everyone to come from,"Qld already broke..By the second anniversary of the flood, we may have a decision as to what's happening, though it'll certainly be closer to 2.5 years before we have any hope of moving back home.
https://www.imf.com.au/Wivenhoe/default.aspx
2.5 years away from home my heart breaks for you and for the disruption to your little ones. I remember your son had a bit of trauma from the floods the 1st time round... how are they coping now?
Hope your insurer gets its act together, and the 3rd party too. I think it sucks that the builder has a vested interest in trying to do the job and therefore giving you guys the run around. There is something wrong with the process!! Hope the ombudsman can give you further clarity and the good news that you are hoping for.
You don't have to respond to this but can I ask which suburb it was? I don't know brisbane at all but I had no idea that the effects were so ongoing.
Keep your chin up!
my heart breaks for you and for the disruption to your little ones. I remember your son had a bit of trauma from the floods the 1st time round... how are they coping now?Hope your insurer gets its act together, and the 3rd party too. I think it sucks that the builder has a vested interest in trying to do the job and therefore giving you guys the run around. There is something wrong with the process!! Hope the ombudsman can give you further clarity and the good news that you are hoping for.
You don't have to respond to this but can I ask which suburb it was? I don't know brisbane at all but I had no idea that the effects were so ongoing.
Keep your chin up!
I think we've been through enough therapy to somewhat alleviate the trauma of the floods themselves, though now, as you say, there's the ongoing disruption to our lives, and feeling like everything is "temporary", and we don't even know when or how it might end; it's definitely not fun.2.5 years away from home
Thanks. Yes, I've registered to be a member of the class action with regards to damages for loss of amenity, ie being out of our house for 2 1/2 years, but I don't know whether that's within the scope of the class action.
Thanks.
I could just about write a book. As we may end up in court, I don't yet want to get too specific, but there have been some incredibly dodgy manoeuvres and conflicts of interest that we've discovered through this process. It's outrageous. If a government department were involved there'd be grounds for a Royal Commission... but alas private enterprise is not nearly so accountable.
We're in Kenmore. There are a few other empty houses around, but by and large, most people in my area have moved on, either because they weren't too badly affected, weren't insured anyway and made do with grants, or just gave up fighting the insurers and accepted a scope repairs that was inadequate. (Like our neighbours.)tess85 said:
The slowest suburbs to recover have been the wealthier enclaves along the river (for example, Fig Tree Pocket, Chelmer, and Tennyson), where there are still quite a few empty houses and businesses. The people with multi-$M houses, with no flood insurance
, are the worst off of everybody, as they got no flood relief, yet suffered the largest losses.Not sure on that,, most i talked too were going for high land value loss but in the street we still have a property in 7 houses are still vacant,and from what i'm told the higher river areas bottom levels are higher now prior too the 2011 floods river levels,so next time the spread may be greater..
Thanks for your response, Perp. I understand that you are limited in what you can say but if you say it's outrageous I'm sure it is. Hope something positive can come from this experience. Had no idea that other suburbs are still recovering... and the whole flood insurance thing is a minefield too, I wonder how many people *thought* they had flood insurance but it didn't actually cover riverine flood or the insurer found a loophole to avoid paying claims
Having been involved in both the 1974 and 2011 floods, I think the greatest mistake made in 2011 was the complete stripping of houses in the few days following the floods. Entire lifetimes of memories were chucked out by enthusiastic volunteers, many salvageable. Done with the best of intentions, it made the houses uninhabitable and entire neighbourhoods were left empty with residents scattered throughout Brisbane.
In 1974 this did not happen. Houses were hosed out and left to dry. People moved back in within days. Hubby's parents were flooded to the tops of the windows but moved back two days after the water went down. At first they camped on the verandah. Water was connected and the sewerage worked, but no power to begin with. But all the neighbours were in the same boat (so to speak) and the whole atmosphere was positive. Power was gradually restored to houses and those with power ran extension cords to those still waiting. People came to help, but each owner was able to direct what was done and when.
Repairs were done months later. For those without insurance the state government paid for basic repairs to make the houses habitable.
I washed my in-laws entire collection of photographs. We were advised to keep them wet until each could be washed and dried. After a full day working on their house, we went home to a house with all floors covered by newspaper to wash yet another bucket of treasured memories. Just about all came out fine.
Perp, I hope things start to move more quickly for you.
Marg
In 1974 this did not happen. Houses were hosed out and left to dry. People moved back in within days. Hubby's parents were flooded to the tops of the windows but moved back two days after the water went down. At first they camped on the verandah. Water was connected and the sewerage worked, but no power to begin with. But all the neighbours were in the same boat (so to speak) and the whole atmosphere was positive. Power was gradually restored to houses and those with power ran extension cords to those still waiting. People came to help, but each owner was able to direct what was done and when.
Repairs were done months later. For those without insurance the state government paid for basic repairs to make the houses habitable.
I washed my in-laws entire collection of photographs. We were advised to keep them wet until each could be washed and dried. After a full day working on their house, we went home to a house with all floors covered by newspaper to wash yet another bucket of treasured memories. Just about all came out fine.
Perp, I hope things start to move more quickly for you.
Marg
Just thought I'd let you know that more than 6 months down the road, we're still awaiting resolution, though I suspect we'll have a win from the Ombudsman within a month or two.
If anybody is interested, I've gone public with a bunch of info about the despicable conduct of our insurer - did a bunch of social media to mark the 2nd anniversary of the floods recently - but I don't want to forever publicly associate it with my SS ID. If you want a link to my slideshow, flick me a PM and I'll send you a link.
If anybody is interested, I've gone public with a bunch of info about the despicable conduct of our insurer - did a bunch of social media to mark the 2nd anniversary of the floods recently - but I don't want to forever publicly associate it with my SS ID. If you want a link to my slideshow, flick me a PM and I'll send you a link.
Believe it or not, still playing silly buggers trying to get a settlement, though we are making progress.
I thought it was ridiculous that 27 months down the line, our lives were still up in the air, but a lawyer friend tells me that there are hundreds to thousands of insurance claims still unresolved from the 2011 floods.
I thought it was ridiculous that 27 months down the line, our lives were still up in the air, but a lawyer friend tells me that there are hundreds to thousands of insurance claims still unresolved from the 2011 floods.
Tell me about it! At least we're headed in the right direction - insurer recently more than trebled their offer, and we're now "in the ballpark" - but some people still have made little progress since the floods, apparently.
And I hate to think how many people just couldn't be bothered fighting any more and accepted much less than they were entitled to, or a smaller scope of repairs. Lots of remedial work that should be done to prevent issues down the track hasn't been done; I'd be very, very careful of buying a previously-flooded house as many of them will be ticking time bombs. And the owners don't even know it.
Yet another group of people experienced movement of their house during the flood, and the insurer refused to stabilise (underpinning etc.), and they thought "oh well, the insurer has to cover it with their lifetime warranty anyway; if the house moves in a few years' time they can fix it again".
Little do they realise that they won't be covered at all. The lifetime warranty is only guaranteeing the quality of the scope of works that were actually done; it doesn't cover future movement, or work that should have been done and wasn't.
When you accept your home back from the insurer after repairs, you have to sign a release that basically says - if anybody bothers to read it - "the insurer has fixed every bit of damage that was attributable to the flood". So if they didn't do any structural works, you're committing, in writing, to agreeing that the flood didn't do any structural damage.
Seriously, I predict that for many years we're going to hear of flood-related structural problems with houses - up to and including sliding down hills and even falling down - due to the soil disturbance and damage caused by the 2011 floods, which the insurers will completely deny any responsibility for.
And the insurers will be able to produce written proof from homeowners - who were just desperate to get back home - that the flood had nothing to do with it.
There is a lot of that going on in Rocklea with the movement in the walls and stumps but Rocklea has a lot of black soil and you always get that in black soil,plus there is still a lot of houses in Rocklea where the houses are still same as they were in 2011,insurance company never gave us one cent nor the government..Yet another group of people experienced movement of their house during the flood, and the insurer refused to stabilise (underpinning etc.), and they thought "oh well, the insurer has to cover it with their lifetime warranty anyway; if the house moves in a few years' time they can fix it again".
Little do they realise that they won't be covered at all. The lifetime warranty is only guaranteeing the quality of the scope of works that were actually done; it doesn't cover future movement, or work that should have been done and wasn't.
When you accept your home back from the insurer after repairs, you have to sign a release that basically says - if anybody bothers to read it - "the insurer has fixed every bit of damage that was attributable to the flood". So if they didn't do any structural works, you're committing, in writing, to agreeing that the flood didn't do any structural damage.
Seriously, I predict that for many years we're going to hear of flood-related structural problems with houses - up to and including sliding down hills and even falling down - due to the soil disturbance and damage caused by the 2011 floods, which the insurers will completely deny any responsibility for.
And the insurers will be able to produce written proof from homeowners - who were just desperate to get back home - that the flood had nothing to do with it.
For anyone interested in the 2011 Brisbane floods this was updated on the ASX,looks like there is a start of the traction stage..imho..
https://www.imf.com.au/Wivenhoe/pdf/Update 27-Nov-2013.pdf
https://www.imf.com.au/Wivenhoe/pdf/Update 27-Nov-2013.pdf
Hi All,
On a nice sunny Saturday while researching i pieced together the QLD flood map for the Redbank/Goodna area. (unless this has been done before)
I have a slightly better copy (as in you can see road names) if you would like me to email it to you
Oh and the red stars are the train stations
Enjoy!
On a nice sunny Saturday while researching i pieced together the QLD flood map for the Redbank/Goodna area. (unless this has been done before)
I have a slightly better copy (as in you can see road names) if you would like me to email it to you
Oh and the red stars are the train stations
Enjoy!
