Despite it being over six months since the devastating storm that caused much destruction to parts of the Harden Murrumburrah area, locals are still being plagued by issues around their insurance claims.
Following a recent visit from the Insurance Council of Australia, locals who have been having issues were hoping that there may be some resolution, however, there continues to be people who are not able to get any action from their insurance providers with the age of their houses appearing to be the biggest issue.
One local has reported that despite not being asked the age of their house when they applied for insurance, they are now being told by one of the biggest insurance providers in the country that due to the age work cannot be done on the property with the house being over 100 years old.
The local has requested they not be named as they continue to move through the process of their claim and they are afraid of the ramifications.
"When I bought the house I obviously got insurance," they said.
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"It was a big purchase and something we planned to make a life in, so we wanted to ensure that we would be protected if anything were to happen.
"They never asked how old the house is, it's an old house, an original house I think, it's around 100 years old, we figured that if they didn't ask for its age then it wouldn't matter, they would be able to repair any damage as long as we paid our insurance each year and paid the premium when and if we needed to.
"Now the worst has happened and they're telling us they can't do anything because it's so old."
According to the local their house isn't as damaged as others were, however it has had an impact on them.
"Our roof was damaged, a couple of windows were broken and there was some water damage to the walls, we're not as bad off as some were, but it's been a nightmare trying to get anything done," they said.
"It took ages for anyone to come and take a look, to see what was damaged and where, but now we have to live with it and it isn't easy, especially with it now being in the colder months."
According to the homeowner their roof continues to leak and they have taken it upon themself to fix the windows.
"As the weather got colder we couldn't handle the windows not being replaced, so even though we really couldn't afford it, we organised for them to be replaced and fixed, I hate to think how cold it would have been through winter if we hadn't."
The local said their story isn't a rare one and with a look on social media it is easy to see that others are struggling with similar situations.
On a recent post online another local said they had 'another' meeting with their insurance provider and hadn't made any progress other than having an assessor measure their roof four times, on the same post others vented their frustrations at continued delays, concerns over tradies from out of the area taking advantage of the situation and no action following assessors visiting.
"I spoke with the representatives from the Insurance Council of Australia and I hope that there will be some progress soon," the local said.
"I thought after what happened in the floods over near Forbes that they would've learned from that, but it seems that it hasn't made a difference.
"We pay our insurance coverage each year and now we're left waiting and we don't even know what we're waiting for."
Many locals that have been spoken to were encouraged following their meeting with Insurance Council of Australia representatives, but it comes following months of frustration and anger with the growing feeling of being left in the lurch.
"If I could afford to get the work done myself I would have already, but as it stands, I reckon if I hadn't paid for the insurance coverage since we moved in, I'd probably have the money to cover what needs to be fixed plus plenty more."
Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke has been bringing attention to the ongoing issue and has been calling for action to be taken and locals are being encouraged to reach out to the Insurance Council of Australia for information at https://insurancecouncil.com.au/.
The Harden-Murrumburrah Express had reached out to the Insurance Council of Australia as well as several insurance providers for comment, however, at the time of going to print we had not heard back.
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