Australia Weather News

It has been almost a week since golf ball-sized hail pummelled Canberra, but thousands of damaged cars are still waiting to be towed away and repaired.

Close to 30,000 claims have been lodged after the large hail storm swept through the ACT on Monday, prompting the National Insurance Council to declare the event a "catastrophe" to expedite claims.

The NRMA has received nearly half of the claims lodged so far — 14,300 — of which 11,200 are motor vehicle-related.

But some NRMA customers have been told they will have to wait months for assessment and repairs, raising doubts as to whether one of the largest insurance companies in the country has the resources to deal with a disaster of this scale.

Slade Minson's Alfa Romeo was damaged in the storm. He described his dealings with NRMA as "a frustrating process".

"After trying for three days I finally got through to someone on Thursday. My car's booked in for early April to be assessed," he said.

"So I've got a three month waiting period before someone can tell me whether or not they'll write off my car.

"My question to the NRMA is, outside of sending automated text messages saying 'We're here to help', can you actually provide some kind of proactive solution and resolution to move forward?

"In the meantime I'm not quite sure what I'm meant to be doing."

Other car owners took to Facebook to express their concerns.

"Your phone lines still have long wait times, your web chat is not available, your claim website is not working … it's been four days and there are still no updates!!" one customer wrote on the NRMA's Facebook page.

"'Here to help' — in April. I received a call today telling me it would take a minimum of four months to simply assess the damage to my vehicle," wrote another.

Said another: "I have a booking for an inspection in seven weeks!!!"

An NRMA spokeswoman said the insurance company was doing "everything it could" to clear the backlog, including dedicating a team to manage customer claims and allocating additional repair facilities "to assess damaged vehicles and book in repairs".

"This is their expertise and these centres can triage up to 288 vehicles a day," she said.

"We're aiming to have all vehicles in ACT triaged by mid-March and repairs underway as soon as possible, and that's because we're still receiving claims for the hailstorm every day."

But many customers are still unsure when their cars will be towed, let alone assessed.

"I've been told that there's hundreds and hundreds of motor vehicles ahead of mine," Mr Minson said.

"I've been advised that my car will be towed to a holding yard that's not secured, and exposed to the elements, until it's ready to be assessed.

"It's an unprecedented event, sure, but what's the contingency plan?"

Insurance Council unaware of claim-related delays

Tow truck companies say it could take weeks to clear the wreckage from the streets.

"The phones have been ringing off the hook," Kerry Halls from Quickeze Towing said.

"We've probably got about 800, could be possibly 1,000 bookings in the system, and every day we are getting more."

The NRMA said it had secured "a large yard" to store towed vehicles, but did not confirm when this would happen.

"If repairable, we'll take them to our facility for repairs," the spokeswoman said.

"We will also have our claims teams at the centres to help explain the process and ensure we're doing everything we can to give our customers peace of mind while we repair their vehicle to the highest quality and safety standards."

Campbell Fuller from the Insurance Council of Australia said he was unaware of any claim-related issues or delays.

"Anyone who is having those concerns can call the insurance council's hotline and we'll seek to escalate those concerns to the insurers," he said.

"The industry is using all of its resources to manage these claims. Many insurers are setting up mass assessment centres to process a large number of motor vehicle claims, and assessors are already active in the city looking at damage to property."

Mr Fuller said early cost estimates were still being calculated, but could likely be hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The insurance industry continues to receive a large number of claims, so these numbers will continue to rise," Mr Fuller said.

The hail storm, which swept across the ACT and New South Wales on Monday afternoon, brought with it winds of up to 117 kilometres per hour and caused "considerable" damage to homes, buildings and wildlife.