Insurance Woes

02 Jun Insurance Woes

Dear Here to Help,

All this rain has damaged my house structure. I lodged a claim immediately. The insurance company said they would send someone to “make safe”, then an assessor. The “make safe” team simply cleaned up some of the debris. I had to follow up the insurance company to send the assessor, who arrived 2 weeks after the damage, and apparently it will take the insurance company yet another 10 days to make a decision. So, nearly 1 month after the damage that is getting worse every day, I might know what is happening.

I am worried about severe damage to my house while the insurance company takes forever to make a decision. I feel like my hands are tied – if I do something without their consent, they might decline the claim.

What a distressing situation.

Service NSW has a useful page dedicated to insurance and emergencies https://www.nsw.gov.au/emergency/recovery/legal-and-insurance

Like all large bureaucracies, nobody there is losing sleep over your situation. So don’t feel bad about following them up and providing them regular updates on what is going on. It can be useful to send them a regular summary of what they have promised, what they have done, what is still outstanding, with timeframes, as well as what you are doing/seeing. Document everything. Take photos. Keep records of all conversations.

Some insurance companies offer a local in-person claims relationship manager, who will come to meet you and liaises with the company on your behalf. You usually need to specifically request this service.

Never undervalue the old-fashioned, in-person approach. If your insurance company has an actual office that you can get to, that is a good option.

Another alternative is to lodge a complaint, which escalates your case to the customer relations team, with a usual promised response timeframe of 24-72 hours.

You can then lodge a “formal” complaint, and they have 30-45 days to respond. Perversely, the 30+ day response time can slow down the company’s response.

The next step is AFCA (www.afca.org.au). AFCA provides dispute resolution between consumers and financial firms.

If you are very worried about your house and all this lengthy, slow-moving bureaucracy is doing your head in, you can contact the insurance company and request approval for you to pay for and undertake the urgent repairs in the meantime, and request reimbursement down the track, once they have worked their way through their bureaucracy. Remember to document everything.

Note that some insurers don’t cover “unauthorised repairs”. On the other hand, insurers generally require you to take reasonable steps to prevent any further damage. These 2 things can feel like walking a tightrope.

The wheels of bureaucracy are very slow, but they do move. Sometimes, you just need to keep oiling those wheels.

This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, June 2025. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to “Here to Help” and let’s see what we can achieve.

Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.

Photo by Bournes senruoB on Unsplash