“It came along, and it hit the driveway, but it didn’t go any further up because we’re on a bit of a high zone here ... the house is raised off the ground by a metre,” she said.
Despite the limited impact on her Shepparton home, Ms Skinner said she believed being classified as living in a flood zone had contributed to the steep rise in her contents insurance premiums.
“They took one look at that, declared we were in a flood zone, and decided that they were going to astronomically increase our prices,” she said.
“We got all lumped together.”
Ms Skinner said her annual premium had increased by more than 35 per cent in each of the past two years.
After the floods, her premium was $850 in 2023, rising to $942 in 2024, $1297 in 2025 and $1940 this year.
“It’s gone from $200 to nearly $2000 in a span of eight years,” she said.
“It’s horrifically expensive now.
“I have no doubt it’s because I’m paying for flood insurance.”
Ms Skinner said her insurer had never adequately explained the increases, leaving her struggling to understand why the cost had risen so dramatically.
“They just up the fees and up it and up and up and up, but they have never explained to me why,” she said.
“I can’t afford this.”
With premiums continuing to rise, Ms Skinner fears she could eventually be forced to cancel her cover.
“I have to pick insurance over putting clothing on my back, feeding myself and my family, and keeping the lights on,” she said.
“It has come to a point where it’s exploitative.”
Despite her struggle with insurance, Ms Skinner said she was one of the lucky ones.
“If I had to have paid either rent or a mortgage, there’s no way I’d be able to afford insurance on top of that,” she said.
Ms Skinner’s comments come after dozens of community members commented on a story about residents being priced out of flood protection.
ARC Justice chief executive Damian Stock said insurance affordability and accessibility had repeatedly emerged as concerns among communities following the 2022 floods.
He said insurance was becoming harder to afford, harder to access and harder to understand, with transparency a key issue.
“People don’t understand why their premiums are changing in different ways,” he said.
Mr Stock said insurers needed to better explain how they assessed risk and recognise individual circumstances.
“We call it postcode pricing. And what that fails to do is recognise that some people have taken concrete steps to reduce their risk,” he said.
An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson said insurers generally assessed risk at an individual property level, rather than applying one price across an entire postcode.
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