Ms Katie McNelis:

One has to jump through a lot of hoops to get thatch insurance. They have certain criteria. For example, no open fires are allowed so all of the open fires at home were removed. We followed whatever protocols we could to get insurance. A broker will search for the lowest price policy for the customer. The customer naturally wants to pay less. Therefore a customer does not necessarily build up loyalty to one insurance company. If certain companies leave the market, the broker moves on to find the next. The broker ran out of choices. There was nobody to turn to.