IN 2021, Katrina De Laurent and sons, Dhugal and Alex, moved to Casterton, where they bought their dream house in Huttton St, faithfully insuring it and its contents with ING.


Four years later, the dream is “just a nightmare” – Ms De Laurent at breaking point with her insurer advising it was cancelling her policy, after a more than 10-month battle, which included acceptance of the policy by the insurer’s underwriters, in July.


“I honestly thought they were going to do the right thing, because I’d done the right thing,” she told Casterton News, last week.


Number 1 Hutton Street was one of the plethora of buildings decimated by the 16 October, 2024 hailstorm, which saw virtually every structure in Casterton damaged – some beyond repair.


Alex and Dhugal were at home when the storm hit, taking photos and videos during and after the event, witnessing water falling down the inside walls of every room in their house, except the kitchen; roof guttering, downpipes, the garage and its contents and water tank were also left looking like they had gone 10 rounds with a heavyweight boxer.


After paying her insurance policy in full, up front, including increases of up to several hundred dollars, each year, Ms Laurent put in a call to ING, to begin the process of lodging a claim for repairs to her home.


And that’s where the nightmare began.


But fast-forward 10 months to last Monday, when Ms De Laurent, literally at breaking point, phoned both Lifeline and The Casterton News – one for mental health support and the other practical advice – after her insurer told her it was going to cancel her policy.


“We’d been away for a week, we came back on Sunday; it was raining and so I just said this is just enough, we’re not even going to go in, we’re not even going to unpack the car … it was smelly … mouldy … damp,” she said.


“I rang the emergency after hours number for ING, (the call taker) said ‘I’m only authorised for three days’ for accommodation and they cannot get us in, in Casterton, so they put us in Penola.”


A great solution – except for the fact that neither Dhugal nor Alex drive and both work daily at the Casterton Foodworks supermarket.


On the Monday, Ms De Laurent phoned her insurer and advised the call-taker of the events of the previous day; she was advised the call-taker would get back to her with “advice as to what we are going to do” by close of business, that day.


“And at two minutes to five, that’s when she said, we’re cancelling everything … cancelling the policy,” Ms De Laurent said.


After receiving the distress call from Ms Laurent, this office immediately referred her to the office of Wannon MP, Dan Tehan, which had dealt with and achieved resolutions for a large number of residents who had encountered ‘insurance problems’ following the 2024 event.


In the following days, after being contacted by Mr Tehan’s office, the insurer made several approaches to Ms De Laurent with a settlement offer for her property – twice where she was urged to accept the offer over the phone and once by email.


“There’s no revised scope of works … (an ING representative) said ‘they have asked us to review it … we probably will not change our mind’, that’s when she offered the settlement, said ‘why do not you just settle now’,” Ms De Laurent said.


When Ms De Laurent bought her home in 2021, she filled out her insurance application honestly, stating the age of the home and providing condition details via a pre-purchase building report, which she had personally sought and which advised the home was ‘clean, dry, tidy, mould-free, no damage, water-tight condition’.


After lodgement of her claim in October, ING first advised that her policy was not relevant because, according to Bureau of Meteorology data, her home had not been hit by the storm.


“They said it missed my house,” she said,


“Then they said we’ll get an assessor out.”


After assuring the insurer the BOM information was incorrect, a building assessor attended Ms De Laurent’s home prior to Christmas, viewing the outside of the house only and from ground level, before a settlement offer was made of around $17,000 to repair the front veranda roof – the only part of the house where the assessor had reported damage.


The offer was refused, with Ms De Laurent raising the other extensive damage issues to the home and contents and the same assessor attended ‘after Christmas’ with a roofing plumber; she said the return assessment on the property determined “the house was not structurally sound, because it’s old”.


“Then they sent me a random selection of items they were going to attend to … they were going to clean away builder’s rubble, contact Powercor … hardly anything was actual work … this is how stupid it was,” she said.


“For example, you know the water tanks we have? … $4000 to replace the lid, but the guttering and the downpipe and the sides of the water tank are all damaged, not mentioned, but they were going to put a $4000 new lid on.


“Nothing about the garage, nothing about the contents, I have home and contents insurance, I pay big money for that combined coverage.


“Nowhere in the scope of works was anything to do with my items.


“At this stage, they still did not go inside, only got on front part of roof … they mentioned the guttering at the front, the verandah roof.


“They said that was going to be $68,000, then I would be able to get builders insurance for that, because they could get a builder to certify those works … I said but the scope of works does not cover the damage, so I said I’m not going to accept it.”


Around two weeks prior to this article being written, five people – including a mould inspector and loss assessor – turned up at number 1 Hutton Street, unannounced and when Ms De Laurent was not at home and inspected the inside of the house, for the first time.


“I have got no reports from these people coming to the house, what they have done, what they have assessed,” she said.


She does however, have the feedback from company Steamatic, which the insurer sent to her home late last week, with frightening results.


“We’d already moved out of the house, they told us if we had been living there they would have told us to get out because that mould, they do not know how toxic it is and once it’s in the house, it could spread to anywhere,” Ms De Laurent said.


Yesterday, Dhugal and Alex moved into emergency accommodation at the Albion Hotel which – at time of going to print – was expected to be paid for by the insurer for the next 30 days, while Ms De Laurent boarded a plane to Alice Springs, where her work will take her for the next two months.


Mr Tehan’s office is taking up her cause with the Insurance Council of Australia and the insurer, though an outcome is yet to be reached.


The Wannon MP said it was “totally disrespectful” of the insurers to treat their clients as those, including ING, had done with Casterton residents over the past 10 months and his office would work closely with Ms De Laurent, to ensure a fair outcome for her family.


Ms De Laurent is one of more than 30 residents who have approached this newspaper over the past 10 months, with similar stories.


Any resident or business owner who is still awaiting a satisfactory outcome from their insurer should contact Mr Tehan’s office on 03 5572 1100.


Casterton News will provide further updates on Ms De Laurent’s matter, as they come to light.