Consumer advocates slam ‘appalling’ response from insurance companies in 2022 floods
The insurance industry has been slammed by consumer groups over the ‘appalling’ treatment of Australians who suffered through devastating flooding.
Australians who suffered through devastating flooding events in 2022 were let down by the insurance industry, and mistakes should not be repeated, consumer advocacy groups say.
In the first public hearing of a federal parliamentary inquiry into the responses of insurance companies during the year of natural disasters, the behaviour of assessors and third-party contractors has been described as “appalling”.
Consumer rights groups say the volume of claims was “no excuse” for poor behaviour.
“We have just seen example after example of sometimes appalling behaviour, really rude, aggressive, bullying behaviour, where third parties come to a person’s house and either accuse them of letting their house fall into disrepair or accuse them of insurance fraud, basically,” Julia Davis from the Financial Rights Legal Centre told the inquiry.
Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania were lashed by major flooding throughout 2022, with a submission from the Insurance Council of Australia estimating the total cost of claims lodged to be nearly $7.4bn.
The group said there were 303,407 insurance claims lodged – 230,000 of which came from southeast Queensland and northern NSW – which has been hit again by recent summer storms.
The inquiry is considering the experiences people had dealing with their insurance company amid complaints of bad behaviour, and the challenges insurers faced in responding to the record number of claims.
