Esk resident Raymond Byron is still sleeping on this day bed in his kitchenafter the flood in January. The walls behind him have only gone up in the past two weeks.

Rob Williams

WHEN Esk man Raymond Byron received an email from RACQ, he thought repairs to his flood-damaged house were about to begin.

Instead he found RACQ’s proposed repairs would see him without a laundry or fences along the side of his block.

Mr Byron was the first householder to take to the stand before the Flood Commission to speak about his struggles with insurance following the flood.

His house, along with that of his mother and sister who lived along the same street in Esk, was completely inundated during the flood.

He found himself living in the kitchen of his house waiting for repairs to begin. He remains there to this day.

After four months of waiting he eventually took a cash payout, instead of waiting for RACQ or its contractors to repair his house.

Speaking at the commission, Mr Byron said he wanted repairs completed quickly in order to house his sick mother.

“My house was the quickest and easiest to repair, which seemed the logical answer to getting mum back there to ease the burden on her,” he said.

However, his hopes of having his house quickly and easily repaired were shot when he found RACQ had missed entire rooms in its proposed repairs.

“It was missing the entire laundry room, a front entrance foyer section, which is three metres by two and a half metres with a front entry door to it, tiled areas associated with both, and half of the perimeter fencing,” he said.

“What was included in the scope of work was the front fence and the rear fence but no side fences.”

Mr Byron said he had been forced to repair his house himself after the payout from RACQ wouldn’t cover the cost of hiring contractors.

Under cross-examination from Shane Doyle SC, Mr Byron admitted in statements he had unfairly described RACQ employees as “indignant”.

“And you accept that is a misdescription?” Mr Doyle said.

“Yeah, for whatever reason I had that, I had that impression on the day, and I don’t know why, but it was there,” Mr Byron said.

A spokeswoman for RACQ Insurance said the company had nothing further to add beyond their statements in the commission.