The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has rolled out a new mobile phone and tablet app that would help millions of Australians understand the severe weather-related and natural disaster risks that could potentially affect their homes and business.

The MyHazards app allows property owners, tenants, and potential property buyers to assess the natural disaster risks of their properties and buy appropriate insurance for their individual needs, by summarising the best-available government data that is in the public realm or has been provided by the ICA.

“The MyHazards app has been designed to help householders and businesses across Australia, by simply putting in the address of a property,” ICA CEO Rob Whelan said. “The app provides a visual map and easy-to-understand summary of potential natural disasters and severe weather hazards, including storms, cyclones, floods, storm tide, and bushfire risk, for more than 11 million properties.”

The app will soon be linked to ICA’s Building Resilience Rating website, which provides information about the resilience of building materials, and can also be used in conjunction with the Understand Insurance’s free building and contents sum-insured calculators.

The MyHazards app is now available from the Apple Store, with an Android version still under development.