IAG responds to severe weather & flooding event in Auckland

Dean MacGregor, IAG Executive General Manager, Claims:

IAG is supporting customers across Auckland after the severe weather and flooding event that caused considerable damage to homes and properties in the past 24 hours.

Our immediate focus is to support customers experiencing vulnerability, including those who have been asked to evacuate their homes. We are also prioritising urgent safety repairs that will enable customers to remain in their homes until more comprehensive repairs can be scoped and completed at a later date.

We continue to work closely with local authorities to coordinate the recovery effort on the ground. This includes ensuring our people and service providers - such as builders, cleaning companies and drying teams - are operating as safely as possible under level 4 restrictions. The teams carrying out this essential recovery effort are adhering to strict health and safety protocols to best protect customers and their bubbles, as well as each other and the wider Auckland community.

At approximately 1pm today we had received a total of 320 claims across our brands, which include AMI, State, NZI, Lumley, Lantern, NAC and Swann, as well as our bank partners, ASB, Westpac, BNZ and The Co-operative Bank. The majority of claims to date are for home insurance, followed by contents and private motor vehicles. We expect these claims numbers to increase over the coming days.

We encourage those affected by the floods to continue to follow safety advice and guidance from Civil Defence and local authorities. For customers who have experienced flood damage, please take note of the following guidance:

• Before throwing anything away make sure you take lots of photographs and carefully list the items. Items to be thrown away are items that cannot be successfully cleaned. If in doubt put the item aside for an insurance assessor to view.
• If carpets are soaked from the floods you may carefully take up the carpets but remember they could be contaminated, so ensure you use proper protective equipment. Keep a sample.
• Don’t attempt to remove any wall linings or solid floor coverings as this could cause more damage. Also some older linings or coverings may have an asbestos risk.
• As some elements of your building may contain bracing components it is important that any removal and replacement is done by a qualified tradesperson.
• Don’t attempt to remove any fixtures or fittings from the home. This may cause further damage. Your builder will remove kitchens and bathrooms, if required, at the appropriate time
• Don’t drive vehicles that have been flooded, instead, please contact your insurer to arrange a tow.

IAG is here to help and the quickest way our customers can make an insurance claim is online - but if they prefer to speak to someone - they can of course give us a call.

Please note our NZI customers should contact their broker in the first instance.

© Scoop Media