Open Letter
to AAMI Insurance and Suncorp Group Limited
CEO Steve Johnston and Management
From the Ashford family
We are life-long AAMI policyholders, simply asking for the service you promised us when you accepted our claims. You state you are in the business of disaster recovery, but in our case, you caused the disaster. You left a young family in a toxic environment, and then made it worse by your failed remediation. And then you simply washed your hands of us.
Our house was affected by mould, and once you accepted our claim, it was your company’s job to fix it. You promised to do this in a manner safe for me in light of my pre-existing allergies, and safe for my family. However, the mould remediation was not handled in a safe way, and despite many of your terrible failings along the way, we remained committed to courteous and respectful dealings, and continued to try to work with you to complete the repairs so we could return home.
We trusted your organisation, and we trusted in the process. Very early on when things started to go wrong, we didn’t rush out to the media, we didn’t engage a lawyer, we didn’t go to the Ombudsman. We didn’t even make a formal complaint through your own company until completely desperate for help and action. And even those pleas were ignored. But despite this, we continued to trust that you would eventually do the right thing. I walked every step of this process in good faith, and yet I understand now you were just playing a numbers game. How long until we crumbled? How long until we gave up? How long until we broke and walked away? Until you broke us?
You talk about “mitigating losses”, but we need you to remember this is our home, it contains our family history, and my children’s childhoods. Our friends and community are at the top of that court. It’s where our entire lives were lived. You’ve taken all that away from us; we’ve lost health, wellbeing, our lifestyle, our possessions, and an incredible amount of money. You’ve added illness, homelessness, debt, instability, and an incredible amount of stress onto our young family. In short, AAMI has ruined our lives, and nearly cost me mine.
As policyholders of an accepted claim, you’ve not upheld your part of the obligation, not morally and not legally. You’ve pushed us and fought us every step of the way, just hoping we would just go away. But go where? This is our home. We always, at every step of the way, intended to and fully expected to return to it. You were contractually obligated to fix it, to return it to its pre-loss condition. You still now have a duty to fix our home. And if you can’t fix it, you need to rebuild it. It’s that simple. So why are you continually fighting us? It has been nearly 6 years now.
We have tried to resolve these issues with you directly, time and time again, and we have tried to mediate through lawyers, but you seem insistent on dragging us through the court system, just to make us fight for what is rightfully ours. We are valid policyholders of an accepted, and partially completed claim. You must uphold your obligations and return our home to a safe and liveable state for myself and my family.
Suncorp is a top 50 ASX-listed company with $96 billion in assets. Your insurance sector made $547 million profit in 2021, up 42.4% from the previous year. Suncorp Group CEO Steve Johnston commented on these returns by stating “During this time our focus has been on supporting our insurance and banking customers and executing our strategic priorities. While COVID-19 and the weather will continue to challenge our customers and our team, we know we have good momentum and a program of work that will further improve outcomes for our customers and shareholders”.
I know management’s response to this will be that you have an obligation to your shareholders to watch the bottom line and return profits, and yes, you absolutely do. But you also have an obligation to those same shareholders to act in a legal and ethical manner. Shareholders want to feel comfortable and confident that the companies they are investing their hard-earned dollars in are not causing another family’s ruin. And what of the customers you suggest you are looking after? Would anyone want to take out an AAMI Insurance Policy in light of what has happened to us?
With over $1,000 million in profit in 2021 alone, Australians will be disgusted at your treatment of us, and your absolute failure to finalise our claims and complete repairs to our home.
We have now been forced to go public with our situation in sheer desperation. We are letting the public – current customers, potential future customers, staff, and shareholders – know what your company has done to an honest family. What has happened to us is shocking, and shows your company in an abhorrent light.
You still have time to make this right.