Flooding and insurance

While flood information can inform insurance premiums, it is vital our community has the information to determine any flood risk that may exist for a property and make plans to manage that risk for themselves and their families.

The insurance industry uses a range of information to make decisions around property insurance premiums. Insurance premium prices are based on the individual site. Detailed flood mapping can have a positive impact on insurance for some people as it provides more specific information about a property’s flood risk and allows for more accurate pricing.

If you are concerned that your insurer may not be accurately accounting for flooding on your property, we encourage you to:

check council’s emergency preparedness flood mapping
seek quotes from at least two other insurance companies.

Locations of recent development

Council flood mapping reflects the current conditions on the ground as accurately as possible. The maps are based on 2018 ALS with new development areas that have been built since then, added in where possible.

Flood mapping for developments underway will be applied during the mapping information updates as details become available. Manually run and paid for flood information searches will use the most up to date information available to council at the time.

Insurance companies will have the same challenge. Their information on the flood risk will be outdated and won’t reflect the changes made by development. Often insurers will not be aware when providing a quote for insurance that the property is within a new development area and the premium may be based on the pre-development flood risk.

If you suspect that this is the case, please discuss this with your insurer to determine if they need to revise their quote. Sometimes a letter from council advising that the property is in a recent development area is sufficient. If this is the case, email us at hydrology@sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au.