Suncorp told to scrap 60% increase of home insurance premium

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Insurance premiums have been rising sharply. After copping a sixty percent price hike, one customer took on insurance giant Suncorp and had the massive increase overturned. There are calls for other customers to follow suit.

Transcript

00:00They took them to the financial ombudsman, AFCA, and AFCA can only consider these cases

00:09under very limited circumstances, including if the premium was incorrectly calculated,

00:15and they said that basically, compared to previous periods of insurance, the risk for

00:20their property hadn't changed a lot, and that was despite it being a very high risk of bushfire

00:26and hail, according to the insurer, and they were successful in convincing the ombudsman

00:32that nothing substantial had changed to justify this massive increase.

00:36They said that the insurer had failed to provide persuasive evidence to convince them that

00:43the price rise was justified.

00:46The insurer did point to this very high risk of bushfire and hail at the property and said

00:51the fire services levy for New South Wales had increased, but when the ombudsman pushed

00:57about that, the increase had only been 0.6 of a percent, and so the ombudsman found that

01:05the calculation of the premium was incorrect and that it should be, in fact, much lower.

01:11This never happens simply, and so they hope that it's going to be a precedent that the

01:16ombudsman follows for future cases and that there will be a significant onus placed on

01:23the insurer to justify these premium increases where people believe they're excessive and

01:28can't be justified, and these generalised answers about increased risk have to be actually

01:37backed up with substantial information this ombudsman decision seems to point to, and

01:43so consumer groups want more people who believe their premiums are excessive and can't be

01:49justified based on factual information to challenge the cases to the ombudsman if they've

01:55already gone to their insurer and aren't satisfied.

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