FOR JOURNALISTS, PODCASTERS AND CONSUMER ADVOCATES.
The question is not whether one family got a bad outcome. It is whether the process that produced it was fair — and whether it would produce the same outcome for you.
NO CRACK.
DAMAGE
OPPOSITE ANSWER.
The short version
Eight times in ten years the insurer’s own side examined this property. Ten assessments in all between 2013 and 2023 — engineers, a scoping builder, the insurer’s assessors. Not one of the ten recorded a crack in the ground-floor slab. GIO’s claim decision of 30 June 2023 reproduced its engineer’s observations word for word, and decided that claim on a record in which the ground-floor slab was uncracked.
In May 2025 floodwater went through the residence. GIO now declines the structural claim on the ground that the damage to that same ground-floor slab was pre-existing.
The independent structural engineer engaged for this claim reports that the ground-floor slab “has exceeded its Serviceable Limit and is considered to have failed to AS-2870”, and that “the house slab is now economically unrepairable. Demolition and replacement is now the only economical and warrantable outcome.”
An engineer says the residence must come down. GIO says $58,394.13 and “4 to 6 weeks”.
Does this seem fair to you!
The case in dated facts
- 2021 — the earlier flood. Settled, rebuilt, closed. Floodwater went through the house on 20 March 2021. Andrew’s mother, Erma Jean Crane, 92, wanted to die at home. She died in temporary accommodation on 3 June 2023 — 805 days after the flood. The claim was settled that August. The family rebuilt the house themselves. That claim is not this claim.
- 20 May 2025 — this flood. Floodwater inundates the home again: a residence purpose-modified for the care of a permanently disabled policyholder. The family has been displaced, in temporary accommodation, since.
- November 2025 — GIO, a Suncorp Group brand, declines the structural head of the claim, alleging pre-existing damage.
- July 2026 — the independent structural engineer engaged for this claim reports the ground-floor slab has “exceeded its Serviceable Limit” and “failed to AS-2870”, and is “economically unrepairable”: “Demolition and replacement is now the only economical and warrantable outcome.”
- 22 August 2026 — with no resolution, the family made the record public: banners on the house, and this site.
- 25 August 2026 — GIO maintains the decline in writing. Its accepted scope stands at $58,394.13. GIO states the repairs “are anticipated to take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to complete.”
- 16 October 2026 — the date GIO has set to stop paying policy-covered temporary accommodation. The structural repairs have not begun.
What it costs to argue
Disputing an insurer's expert is not free. Consumer advocates price rebutting one report at $5,000–$10,000, and note that “the complaints authority does not have anything where you can dispute an expert finding” (Tyrone Shandiman, Australian Consumers Insurance Lobby, ABC News, May 2026).
This dispute has already cost this family well beyond those figures.
What we can give you
Every step of this claim documented, dated and kept. Provided on request: GIO's 25 August 2026 letter; the engineer's report; GIO's written “4 to 6 weeks”; the temporary-accommodation terms. Consumer bodies and inquiries may use the whole file as a case study for submissions, research or testimony — consent is already given for that use.
Andrew Crane will speak on camera, on air and in print, by name, about this claim and about what the process does to a household. By phone, video or in person on the NSW mid-north coast. For podcasters: the whole arc, told by someone who kept every letter. Ninety minutes is fine. So is nine.
Come and shoot it yourselves. The banners, the house, the street — you are welcome to photograph and film here, and Andrew will walk you through what you are looking at. We also hold our own photographs and footage of the residence, the banners and the street, which we can provide. Nine's 2023 broadcast is theirs and is linked, not supplied.
AFCA received a record 119,949 complaints in 2025–26; general insurance accounted for 36,022. Across all financial products the top three issues were delay in claim handling, service quality and claim rejection. The parliamentary inquiry into small business insurance reports on 27 October 2026. We can put one household's file beside those numbers.
How we work with you
- Facts before adjectives. Every claim on this site is anchored to a document and a date; if we cannot show it, we do not say it. Hold us to that.
- Nothing is off the record that is on this site; some things in the file are held back because the dispute is live. We will tell you which, and why.
- The insurer is named because the documents name it. We do not speak for other policyholders, and we do not publish anyone else's story without their word.
- We aim to reply to every media approach within one business day.
Write to media@claimsdenied.au
Put “Media”, “Podcast” or “Advocacy” in the subject line and it reaches the right inbox first. Documented record: claimsdenied.au.