Elderly man in fight with GIO after insurer refused his earthquake damage claim

An elderly man has revealed his dramatic fight against an insurance giant after Melbourne’s 2021 earthquake caused $80,000 damage to his home.

Allan Hills, 83, is a retired builder and supermarket manager whose home was damaged by the Victorian earthquake in September 2021. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Allan Hills says a dodgy engineering report is behind the decision of his insurer, GIO, to refuse his claim for damage to his home from an earthquake that shook Victoria in September 2021.

The 83-year-old former builder and self-described “cripple” – he gets around with the help of a lightweight wheelchair – has been fighting GIO, a division of insurance giant Suncorp, since lodging his claim shortly after the quake, which blasted bricks from the facades of Melbourne buildings.

Allan Hills, 83, had his home damaged by the earthquake that hit Victoria in September 2021 Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Hills says it caused between $70,000 and $80,000 worth of damage to his house in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s outer northwestern suburbs.

To start with, even lodging the claim was a problem.

“It took us about a week and a half to get through,” he said. “You’d be on the phone for an hour – somebody just kept hanging up.”

The company sent an engineer around to inspect the damage in February last year, who delivered his report in March.

Mr Hills said the earthquake caused between $70,000 and $80,000 damage. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

But Hills says the report is fraudulent because it includes pictures of concrete blocks when in fact his house is made of limestone bricks – and he should know, because he built the house himself.

“It’s just wrong,” he said. “What he’s saying is incorrect. It’s the wrong kind of brickwork.”

Hill said GIO’s engineer also failed to notice that a beam in the ceiling had lifted out of place.

He said he commissioned his own report after GIO offered to pay for it, but the company reneged on the offer.

Resident Mr Hills is a retired builder and supermarket manager. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Allan Hills said GIO refuses to pay to fix damage. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The new report found significant cracking, which was likely to be due to the earthquake.

However, GIO still rejected his claim and Hill’s appeal to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority also failed.

AFCA found that the new report was not enough to prove the damage was due to the quake and threw out Hills’ claim that GIO’s report was “invalid or fraudulent”.

A GIO spokesman said: “While we sympathise with Mr Hills’ position, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority completed a fair and independent review of his claim, including considering his own additional engineering report, and concluded there wasn’t evidence the earthquake caused the damage to his home.”

Originally published as Elderly man in fight with GIO after insurer refused his earthquake damage claim