While the Lismore App was writing about Graham and Judy Askey's House Buyback story (South Lismore resident says House Buyback offer generous but will be rejected) , we had written to the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) and asked them to answer a few questions that arose.

One of those questions was, can a home owner who is offered a House Buyback choose another option such as a House Raising instead?

The answer we received was:

• The Resilient Homes Program will offer eligible homeowners one of the three available measures, based on expert property assessments, flood impact severity data, safety risks and potential future flood levels:
• Home buybacks – the homeowner receives a payment for the purchase of their house and land, or 
• Home raising – funding is committed to elevate liveable areas above a property-specific flood level, or
• Home retrofit – funding is committed to retrofit and/or repair liveable areas to improve the resilience of these areas for future floods.

A homeowner does not have the ability to nominate a particular stream of their choosing. This means that if a homeowner is assessed by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation as being eligible for the Home Buyback stream, the Home Raising or Retrofit streams are unavailable. If people have been offered a buyback it is because their home is in a severe/high-risk area. This includes risk to life.

The next question revolved around how often the Resilient Homes Dashboard is updated. When we checked it was the same numbers as the week before.

Answer:  

The Resilient Homes Fund dashboard is updated fortnightly and provides a snapshot of progress made across the Resilient Homes and Resilient Land programs, including status of valuations and offers made. 

The dashboard can be viewed here: www.nsw.gov.au/regional-nsw/northern-rivers-reconstruction-corporation/resilient-homes-fund. The latest update is as of 16 March 2023 which was yesterday.

As you can see, there are 481 House Buybacks underway throughout the Northern Rivers with the majority of those in Lismore. 155 valuations have been undertaken and 27 offers have been made at this time.

The NRRC did say that offers have been accepted, however, details of individual offers cannot be publicly disclosed for privacy reasons. The accepted offers have not led to any settlements at this time.

By the end of April, the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) will have made 250 buyback offers in the region’s highest flood-risk areas, with more to come throughout the year.

By mid-2023, all residents who have registered with the Resilient Homes Program (5,901 according to the dashboard) will have been contacted about their eligibility for the program.

As the elections are a week away, the government entered the caretaker period from March 3rd so more information can only be sought once the election is over.