What a shocking portrayal of VMIA!!!

VMIA staff referring to claimants as “C**t owners”…And that’s just the start of it.

Victorian Ombudsman Marlo Baragwanath found that VMIA failed to “effectively communicate its decisions and intentions to homeowners, creating a justifiable perception of unfairness”.

The material issue lies in that VMIA has aggressively fought claimants on legitimate claims to minimise quantum by obtaining quotes from “preferred builders”.

Whilst damning on the conduct this is no surprise to me. We have dealt with DBI claims through VMIA and I have found VMIA and their approach to claimants and lawyers representing claimants to be one of the worst insurer experiences I have ever had to deal with in over 25 years in insurance and law.

And that’s from a state run insurer!

Now, BPC is amalgamated with VMIA. There needs to be major efforts to address these failings come 2026, our homeowners and industry deserve better. The BPC has a lot of work to do to ensure standards improve significantly.

Finally, why are even the Victorian Ombudsman looking into this???? It’s insurance and building, by the way I am glad it occurred, but as a lawyer it should been VBA, but we all know what it was up too…

I suppose we should be congratulating the Ombudsman for stepping in even where it really is not in their lane and making these issues more publicly known.

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• building disputes