More than two years after south-east Queensland was battered by flooding, Karl McKeever and Marie Platt are still dealing with the fallout.
Between February 24 and February 27, 2022, Mount Glorious received 1,642 millimetres of rain — more than it usually receives in a year.
“[Water] came through the rear of the house, it came in the study and we had water down our chimney,” Mr McKeever told ABC Radio Brisbane.
“It damaged the roof in the study. Just a big hole.
While the initial damage was relatively limited compared to others around the region, he said the way his insurer had dealt with the issues led to significantly more damage.
Mr McKeever’s experience is just one of a number being heard today at an inquiry into major claims from the 2022 disaster.
Mr McKeever said major works on the house finally started in November 2023, and parts of the ceiling and roof were removed.
“[Our insurer] got their flood restorers in and removed walls and removed ceilings that they said had mould in them — that’s as far as they got.”
He said over the holiday period, the builder employed by the insurer sealed the house and completed a “make safe”.
But the day before Christmas, a storm saw more water enter the house “because their make safe had failed”, he said.
Mr McKeever said the mould returned and he now has to wear a mask when entering his home.
We handed our insurer and their builder a livable property in November, now we have a house with no interior walls, no interior ceilings in places, and everything is covered in mould.
“We’ve lost everything.”
The Standing Committee on Economics inquiry into insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims will hear from councils across the south-east, as well as members of the public and local community legal services.
On Tuesday afternoon, Caxton Legal Centre senior lawyer Jacqui Cavanagh told the committee the lack of individual case management by insurers was enormously frustrating to many people making flood insurance claims.
“It was a big problem, particularly for a lot of people who’ve got long ongoing cases,” she said.
Ms Cavanagh said given some claims “take months and years”, having a person to contact during that process would help to alleviate a lot of the stress.
The inquiry will head to Logan tomorrow, before more public hearings in Lismore on Thursday.
