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What to do if you are Insured with AAMI
& have water damage

We have been in a 6 year battle with AAMI over a botched water damaged claim & have learnt quite a lot about how the company deals with major loss claims over the years. We have set up this web page as a guide to help others who may be dealing with a water damage claim that is considered a major loss by AAMI, with the hope that you will not be dealt with the same way that we have.

Step 1

  • Lodge your Claim

  • Take Photos & Videos of Every bit of Damage, & damaged contents items. Ensure this is done before anything is thrown away

  • The more photos & video the better

  • Set up a spread sheet listing all the items you have lost, the value & a link to an online store with the equivalent item. We found that when AAMI did this they grossly under priced our contents, they used items of lesser quality, cheapest brands or left things out completely

  • Supply these to AAMI,

    • If you have a lot of photos & videos that are too big to e-mail you can place them in a folder & use a file transfer service, there are a lot of free applications out there, we used drop box. Send these to myclaim@aami.com.au with your policy number & claim number in the subject field (do this for every e-mail)

  • Work out who your claim manger is & communicate directly through them

  • Stay Organised Set up a dedicated AAMI folder in your inbox & place all emails in there

  • After every phone call follow up with an e-mail to myclaim@aami.com.au listing who you spoke to & summarising the conversation.

    • This is very important Although every phone call is recorded, when we subpoenaed our phone recordings from AAMI in preparation for trial, they first claimed we only spoke to them on 9 occasions across a 5+ year period. They clearly withheld conversations on key dates that we are still trying to recover.

    • Contact your claims manager & requested Emergency Accommodation, if you feel your home is currently unsafe. You are entitled to 12 months emergency accommodation under your policy, for “Like for Like” Accommodation, or until AAMI complete the work on your property . We never were allowed to stay in like for like accommodation, we spent time in caravan parks & cheap hotels & furnished homes that didn’t come close to our own home as far as size or quality. AAMI also would only approve 2-3 nights at a time even though our house was clearly unliveable & leave us unapproved for emergency Accommodation, forcing us to find & fund our own, then seek re-imbursement. We are still waiting on un-paid re-imbursements 5 years on. Approving 2-3 nights at a time also prevented us finding long term accommodation that we desperately needed.

Step 2

  • Get work started at your property ASAP You want your property repaired before mould starts to form

  • Call AAMI daily if need be to get the ball rolling - Remember, The squeaky wheel gets the grease

  • We waited over 3 months for AAMI to begin work on our water damage home, by then mould had well & truly set in. The stench was horrendous & we were all suffering respiratory issues. My son was rushed to hospital a couple of times with breathing issues brought on by croup. AAMI told us to “just open a window”

  • Black mould releases mycotoxins that can cause severe health problems, especially for those with Asthma or a compromised immune systems. Black mould is often attributed to sick building syndrome (SBS) & needs to be taken seriously.

  • Demand air dryers be installed in your property immediately, you need to get everything as dry as possible ASAP

  • Water damaged carpets should be removed & deemed non-salvageable

  • Walls will need to be flood cut, this is where the plaster is removed to a point above the highest water mark. This also allows the frame work to dry out.

  • All MDF skirts & furniture will need to be removed & deemed non-salvageable

  • Anything that can not be washed will need to be deemed non-salvageable, including mattresses, pillows & curtains (Take photos of labels)

  • AAMI will appoint trades to attend your home, remember these guys work for AAMI. From our experience the trades appointed by AAMI where quick to cut corners, at times lied, & looked after the insurers best interest.

  • Don’t be shy & take photos or videos of the trades working in your home. If you have CCTV this footage may also be of use if things deteriorate. Our experience was that AAMI told us what we wanted to hear, & it wasn’t till after a year that the truth  slowly started to come out.

  • If there is mould in your home, speak to the trades & ask how are they going to deal with it? Ensure you are happy with their approach. Make sure they are containing the mould, double zip lock doors should be installed on each affected room to contain mould spores

  • Push to have all affected mould areas removed, rather than chemically treated

  • You may be allowed to have your own expert attend and quote for works, so you can be sure the work is undertaken in a professional and safe manner. If you are using this option, be sure to have in writing what AAMI agrees to pay, and who is responsible if more mould is found later.

  • Securing the services of a private loss adjuster may assist in ensuring the insurer is accurately valuing losses and works

Step 3

  • Once the works are complete, AAMI will attempt to appoint someone to test & confirm the mould has been remediated, we strongly recommend disputing this & organising your own micro biologist to conduct testing for surface & airborne mould. You will get what you pay for here.

  • You do not want the company who remediated the mould, conducting the mould test. You need a company who is completely independent of AAMI following your instructions, testing to see if the mould remediation was a success. In our experience we had AAMI withhold a report indicating there was mould, while claiming the property was mould free.

  • We also had AAMI supply reports where elevated levels of mould were detected above safe limits & their response was It is only slightly elevated, Your home is safe to return to.

Step 4

  • If you are not satisfied with the work to date, request an Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR)

  • Do this as soon as you become concerned – do not delay

  • With an IDR AAMI are supposed to independently assess your claim & offer a solution if the claim has not been handled correctly. In our case we requested an IDR which came back ruling in favour of us & with recommendations that AAMI take responsibility & correct our situation, we waited 8 months for something to happen, which it never did. So we requested a second IDR which then reported that our claim had been completed without any work being undertaken.

  • The IDR process is mandatory if you feel you need to escalate your situation, I would recommend not allowing too much time for AAMI to resolve the issue here based on our experience

  • (we asked in early 2017 and did not get our final ruling until April 2018)

Step 5

  • Speak to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority  (AFCA) (Formally the Insurance Industry Ombudsman) https://www.afca.org.au/ The AFCA will offer support & intervene if your claim fits within their scope. Unfortunately, our claim was outside of their powers due to the monetary value of our losses & we were instructed by them to seek a lawyer

  • Do not be dissuaded from submitting a formal complaint. Every time we attempted to do this we were promised resolution if we just waited – for a new report – or someone to get back from leave etc. It was simply another delaying tactic

  • Consumer Affairs are also really helpful & supportive, they will guide you in a direction that you need to go 1300 55 81 81

  • VCAT (Victoria) QCAT (Queensland) NCAT (New South Wales) may be an option, so look into the options available here

  • There are also private companies such as “Solve My Claim” which can get involved to assist in having your claim amicably resolved, you will need to discuss your own circumstances and look at pricing to see if this is an option for you

Step 6

  • If you have exhausted all other options, then you may need to Seek out a lawyer, the lawyer you choose to work with should be an insurance specialist. There are also a lot of “no win, no fee” options out there, I strongly suggest doing your research here & find the right fit for you & your claim. We chose Berrill & Watson Superannuation & Insurance Lawyers https://www.berrillwatson.com.au/

  • From here you need to communicate clearly with your lawyer & follow their instructions

General Advice

  • Going Public – At some point you will feel the need to get your story out there, & it is important to be clear & articulate whenever you release something. Avoid ranting, bad language & stick to the truth, it will go a long way especially if you can support your opinions with photos, videos & documentation. Always be cautious of defamation & anything that has been supplied to you confidently. I recommend suppling information to your lawyer before putting it out there.

  • There are so many social media platforms out there, use them all.

  • Facebook, Twitter, & youtube are probably the biggest, with many more out here.

  • Facebook is the easiest platform to gain support on, ask for friends to share any content on with an attempt to gain broader interest in your story.

  • Change.org set up a petition asking for AAMI to fix your home, we got unbelievable traction on that platform, getting around 20,000 signatures within 3 weeks. Change.org also allows you to e-mail out 5 updates a week to your supporter which can be really useful with giving new content legs.

  • Twitter is very powerful, send out a tweet linking every new release you have. You can also easily search up current board members of Suncorp & their twitter handles that can be used to tag them to each tweet. A lot of journalist use twitter & can also be directly messaged or tagged through this platform. We received quite a bit of blind attention through this platform from journalist once we started sending out tweets.

  • Speak to Newspapers, start local & build from there, set up a media release which could consist of relevant photos, supporting documents, you could even draft an article outing key points, which a journalist could pick up & polish for their article.

  • Television, contact a Current Affair, the Project, 7.30 report, 60 minutes, again layout as much of the story as you can, be very clear of the key points. Your goal is to make the story appealing to the journalist in a brief snapshot summary.

  • Radio get on talk back radio, when on-air stay calm, level headed & avoid ranting.

  • Stay Strong, AAMI are notorious for weaponising time, they drag your claim out as long as possible, to wear you down & try to break you, so you accept a lowball settlement because you simply want it to end.

  • Speak to your local politicians & reach out to federal ministers, in most cases you will find someone who will offer support & bang their fists on tables for you. We are currently speaking with a Federal Senator on pursuing a royal commission into the insurance industry. It is Cleary too corrupt & open to fraudulent actions, insurance companies seem to have no one to answer too when it comes to major loss claims

Additional Resources

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