CGU Home and Contents Insurance

I have dealt recently with CGU, I find it very hard to believe that they can achieve more than one star, one star is actually too high a rating for a company that can make an open and shut case claim seem like a real long shot that you will be compensated for your loss. They take the money every month without fail, but seem to have lost sight of why. This site should allow more options such as half a star, a quarter star, maybe even a pig emoji. I will move on to a different insurer wiser for the experience.

I was convinced by my credit union (why are they selling insurance anyway?) to change to CGU. In trust I transferred across to CGU and 6 months later a storm damaged part of the asbestos fence at the back of the property. It has fallen over. they say they won't pay anything because it has fallen over but isn't damaged??? and that the bottom strut that was holding it was rusted. I only moved in 6 months ago. my neighbours insurance company, which by the way was the one I was with prior to CGU, has no problem paying out immediately for his half of removal of the fence and replacement. so now I have to spend time going through the insurance ombudsman asking for assistance. CGU never had much of a reputation, I was reluctant to change over but the bank manager said if they ever give me a hard time he would advocate for me because they want the credit union's custom. Of course the bank manager won't look at it and won't do anything. He's probably skulking under his desk somewhere. Counting the money CGU gives him for conning customers. Both the Credit Union representative and CGU have behaved unethically. Do you guys really want that kind of reputation? you cant hide behind an inhuman business wall all the time surey? this is people who pay you in trust, your families, your friends, people who struggle, don't you get embarrassed at your dishonesty? I'll be letting my networks know of this poor response.

Have had a problem with a fencing issue. Have asked for technical assistance as suggested by council. Its now been three weeks have phone just about every day, numerous times a day and have not got anywhere. Keep being told that we will receive a call back from supervisor's etc. No calls have been returned. When you phone them and the phone drops out they never call back.
I have been with this company for over 30 years, have numerous properties insured with them and this is how they treat you.
I am now looking for a new insurance company for 3 properties and am going to get in touch with the insurance ombudsman and A Current Affair, I'm sure [name removed] going to love this story.

Would I recommend this company definitely NOT.
Not impressed with anything from this company at all

While we were holidaying a pipe burst in the ceiling of our home. This resulted in considerable damage making the house uninhabitable. CGU arranged for work to commence the day we reported the damage. They paid for alternative accommodation whilst the building was repaired. The damage was repaired to a very high standard, carpets and damaged furniture replaced, etc. I could not fault the service they provided. They phoned three months after we moved back into the house to ascertain that everything was okay.

My husband and I recently purchased home contents insurance through CGU and were affected by the Townsville floods. CGU accepted our claim initially, sent assessors to inspect the damage and offered us immediate financial assistance then did a complete backflip stating we weren’t covered due to a technicality. Due to their misrepresentation and direction, we disposed of our damaged contents and now they are saying they are not liable for anything. We have lost our entire home and have nothing left. It’s an absolute disgrace, considering we are both serving members of the ADF and were involved in the flood response.

I've been with CGU on and off for well over 20 years, for both house and car. In that time l have made a few claims and have found that every single claim experience has been simple and fast. I have switched over the years to other insurers as they offered cheaper premiums and excess but when it came to making a claim they used every trick in the book not to assist. So l have always come back to CGU, l recommend them over any other insurer l have tried.

After being with CGU for 27 years made few claims and have been paying premiums on all policies of over $10000 a year for the last 15 years. We had a leek from our roof that damaged carpet in a downstairs bedroom and upstairs lounge area where a large section of carpet had to be removed. After making a dispute on our claim of just covering the lounge and not the joining dining/formal room upstairs which we can’t match the carpet, if we have to settle for the one room we will have pay for the other room ourself. I thought we paid for premium insurance but only get average cover. For the sake of $3000 that they won’t come to the party for we will be taking our $10,000 premiums elsewhere.

Daylight robbery is essentially what they do. I had a ceiling collapse in my garage. The assessor sent out by CGU and a private assessor I hired myself said that this happened at no fault of mine and the house and roof was in immaculate condition and that there was insufficient amount of glue in the ceiling which no one could have known at the time of buying the house. CGU denied the claim saying it was "wear and tear". The house is 10 years old - ceilings that are immaculate do not fall off due to wear and tear. Highly recommend you avoid them! They also never check emails and frequent "disconnect" the phone mid conversation if they can't come up with a rebuttal.
I think one just needs to look at the majority of reviews on this website to see that CGU is running a con job with no integrity and respect in the work that they do. For about $100-150 more, you could get much more trustworthy insurance (eg: RAA). Highly recommend to avoid!!

Hi

I am ultimate health member of Bupa and have CGU insurance as well. They have been good so far with me. Recommended

Six years with you and paying you for service that is not worth paying for, put in a damage claim and it has been the worst customer service I have ever received. That is if you call me having to contact you again and again and then offered a replacement at half the price shame on you CGU will be removing all my insurance from you.

Came back from holidays noticed that the timber floor is damaged due to water leak. CGU rejected the claims based on the fact that they could not find the cause of the leak !

3 insurance policies consistent for 11 years with not one claim for anything. CGU just screwed me on one of the policies due to a slight circumstance change. They basically won’t insure me because one of my buildings is vacant now. It’s a pity I didn’t know this last month when I renewed because I would of found someone elsewhere takes their business more seriously to take all 3 policies. CGU obviously are good at taking your money when it suits them. They are obviously a company of scumbag thieves and rogues disguised in nice suits. I am certainly now of the belief that the CEO is a money hungry maggot.
God help you if your house burns down.
Do not be tricked and deceived by these filthy dogs.

The whole claim process was fantastic. I had to make a claim for my laptop that was severely damaged. I panicked for a bit and realised I had contents insurance so gave them a call. They have 24 hour claim call centre which is great and allowed me to submit claim on 1am on Saturday. The whole process was easy, I called couple times to follow up and was connected with no difficulty. I would definitely recommend this company for contents insurance!

I've paid out over $150,000.00 in insurance premiums over 27years for nothing. I have claimed a total of $3000 over those years and now are claiming $30000 repairs and they want to settle at $4000. They're hoping I'll give in stressing me out. Very very very upsetting. I'm cancelling the insurance policy in 2days. I'm not going to give them another cent.

We have had CGU Insurance for a few years now and had to make a claim late last year when mowing i hit something hidden in the grass and managed to break a glass sliding door and a window. This was on Sunday and had to wait till Monday to sort out and it was repaired Monday afternoon. All in all claim was quick and painless which is how it should be.

I had to make a claim due to a water burst in the bathroom, flooded the whole house. I cant speak highly enough of the help and responseby CGU considering how stressed i was on the phone and probably a little difficult. They reassured me that everything would be OK .The response by contractors was excellent to say the least.

I have been with CGU a couple of times, for both car and my contents. Currently I have my contents through them, I have the premium coverage, that covers both accidental breakage and portable items that you may take off your place. I got some quotes last year, and nearly had an heart attack, as so many were hundreds of dollars more, and most did not have the same level of coverage each year. I recommended CGU to someone on Toluna for her to look at, and she was so shocked, as she was looking for a cheaper coverage, and was so shocked how much cheaper they were, and that they actually cover you for more in that coverage as well. They have looked after me, at a real time in need, when i had my holden camira with them, and took all the fuss out, and wanted to quickly pay out the claim, after it was hit in the car park where I used to live, doing front end damage, because it was pushed over the curb. I highly recommend them. I would never switch my contents away from them, I once got a quote from RACT, was virtually tol that I needed 3 different policies to get the same coverage, which i did not like that idea at all.

I have had CGU home & contents for about 15yrs & never had to claim anything until last week. My split system air con had a motor fusion among other things & was needing to be replaced. I put in a claim on friday, had to wait for the technicans quote which came within a couple of days, emailed it in to CGU, rang them a day later & all done, approved. I was a bit concerned after reading these reviews & thought i may have a fight on hands but the girls i spoke to were lovely, explained everything to me about what will be covered & the couple of consumable items they wont. Money in my account within 2-3days. The process was easy & streamlined & now wont freeze through winter. Very happy with the service i experienced & will be staying with them as my insurer.

There claims process is antiquated, slow and lacks any real customer service. They use an overseas call centre as their first point of contact making it very difficult to understand them and for them to understand us. Dreadful service.

We discovered a burst water pipe under our floorboards which had been happening for a long time as we discovered dripping water under the floorboards in the Hall way five meters away from the burst pipe in the kitchen under the hardwood floorboards and floating floorboards. CGU didn’t follow S500 IICRC water damage that CGU is trained in. (which states dry out water damage within 48 hours of discovery as mould will start growing). Instead they sent McMullen building services 10 days later he never mentioned any mould concerns to me even after complaining about the musty smell in my house and after telling him l have three young children and it stinks in here when are you coming around and coming back as he came twice.

Two months later received a email from JP Flynn builders saying McMullan services have been removed from the job and we are sending McMahon building services to inspect our house for mould and to do mould remediation. CGU wasn’t even going to pay for our accommodation l told CGU the doctor said after seeing the video of the water damage and mould. If there’s mould in the house get out CGU response “ a doctor is not a builder.” McMahon services contractor said your sickness I all in your head there no mould there. CGU then told us we have two reports here that you house is safe to live in. We asked for these reports but CGU wouldn’t give them to us.

With us still complaining and us writing many emails back and forth to CGU (very stressful) which is our right when we want something done that is part of the insurance that we paid for about twenty years. CGU arrange another contractor for more testing and mould remediation and as we suspected Mould Lab reports say high levels of mould so this is why all five of my family were getting sick in the two months from when we found the burst pipe from mould spores floating out into the air from two open inspection holes in the hallway and kitchen (so we were eating mould as well as breathing it in).

We have had enough by now we wrote to the financial ombudsman service (FOS) complaining again. We spoke to a not very friendly guy in the ombudsman’s office telling him CGU want to cash settle us and we don’t want to. FOS replied CGU can’t do that there’s an active investigation going on. We rang CGU stating what FOS said. CGU replied FOS can’t do that I’ll ring FOS. We rang FOS the same employee back as we found all this money in our bank account on the weekend from CGU they did cash settle us.

We started investigating ourself as FOS determination was we pay 50% and CGU pay 50% for mould remediation and we didn’t think this was right. CGU also stated in this first FOS determination in an email “had our clients had repairs done straight away the mould wouldn’t have been an issue” how can CGU say this where was there duty of care to there contractors and my families health.

We then find out this so called mould remediation company Kitmark sent us two certificates that he forged stating he performed mould remediation to s520 IICRC standard and he was not even certified. He fogged, ozoned (which is a nose, eyes and lung irritant) and never physically removed all visible mould in our house that’s why S520 is important to follow for mould remediation. We sent photos and videos we had taken the day after Kitmark left our house with his so called mould remediation leaving mould everywhere under and above our floorboards for evidence as you can see we didn’t trust anyone by this stage and we were right screwed again.

We also find out From an expert that CGU are trained in following the S500 protocol. Where was CGU duty of care not implementing S500 IICRC if we had known this we would have got our family out sooner. We ourselves organized a certified s520 IICRC company to test our house and yes again high levels of mould and they only test some of the house as it gets expensive and guess what they get sick from being in our house. After all this evidence FOS made another determination CGU pay 70% we pay 30% , $1000 compensation, $8600 unforeseen repairs.
Yippee we are still in our caravan eight months later in our back yard since contacting FOS awaiting mould remediation and quotes.
We also find out it is not for FOS to punish CGU. A whole year off stress for what because CGU didn’t follow protocol and CGU forced settlement on us.

I hope everyone reads this and you loose all your business because that’s what this rubbish is all about CGU making money and telling untrue statements to your Clients.