The Insurance Council of Australia has opened an online disaster-affected trades register, starting from 14 January 2020, to assist with disaster recovery and rebuilding. Qualified tradespeople and builders who are operating in the disaster-affected areas, that have the capacity to work on property repairs and rebuilds are invited to register at www.disasters.org.au.
Details on the registration requires the business to navigate to the disaster trade register by clicking on the “Bushfire Trades Register” on the home page of the Insurance Council of Australia website. The business will have to provide responses to all the following in order to proceed:
Registered business name
Registered business address
Registered Australian Business Number/Australian Company Number
Business website
Business E-mail address
Main contact number
Preferred mobile phone number
List of insurance the business holds (eg Professional Indemnity, Public Liability)
Brief description of the services the business can provide, which will form the basis of search terms used by potential customers
Number of years the business has been operated continuously
Number of employees currently employed by the business
Number of apprentices or trainees working with the business
Area(s) that the business is willing to provide service to, and
Brief description of the business itself, which includes the experience and specialities of the business. This is mainly to illustrate to insurers and individuals why they should engage the service.
Once the form is completed, the details of the business will then be posted to the ICA trades register database, for insurers and individuals to search and access the details provided.
While the register may give preference to tradespersons who were directly affected by the fires, applicants from outside those areas may still apply.
Your opportunities
Apart from being able to participate in the rebuild and remediation of the disaster-affected areas, the introduction of the disaster trades register also presents a good opportunity for trades or building professionals operating in the area.
No doubt that their trade and building businesses would have been adversely affected by the advent of the disaster, and that might have led to a reduction of income for that period. The opportunity to be able to supplement their income through work found via this register would undoubtedly be welcome.
The opportunities for the recent bushfire disaster should be attractive to the tradesperson. Insurers are estimated to have received 13,750 bushfire catastrophe-related claims since 8 November 2019, with losses amounting to about $1.34 billion. This is expected to increase sharply once the large commercial claims are lodged.
