News

CGU Insurance has taken immediate action to support customers impacted by the severe
weather that hit Melbourne and parts of Victoria over the recent long weekend.
The insurer has received over 4,500 claims so far, mostly for damage to homes and
vehicles.

Ben Bessell, General Manager of Claims for CGU, said that CGU was focused on helping
customers as quickly as possible.

“We want to thank the thousands of customers, and our brokers and business partners, for
their patience in lodging claims with us over the past ten days, and want to assure them we
are working hard to help. We are prioritising claims based on the level of damage and need
for critical repairs.

“We understand that our customers want to get things back to the way they were before the
storms hit.

“Due to the high volume of claims across the insurance industry, we know that it will take
longer than usual to complete some claims because of the limited availability of quality
assessors and repairers. We appreciate that this will be frustrating for affected customers.

“This is why we are working very closely with our network of qualified assessors and
repairers to ensure that our customers’ vehicles and homes are assessed as quickly as
possible, and then of course repaired promptly too.

“We have a specialist team managing all the claims arising from this event, and that team is
working seven days a week to ensure we service our customers as quickly as possible, while
maintaining quality standards of repair.

“We have set up dedicated vehicle assessment centres around Melbourne to help manage
the large number of vehicle assessments from these storms. We are currently arranging for
impacted customers to attend one of these centres.

“In relation to home assessments, we have been meeting regularly with our preferred
builders and have put in place processes to enable claims to be progressed efficiently. All
our builders and assessors carry CGU identification and customers should ask to see this
before letting anyone in or around their property.”

CGU is encouraging affected customers who have yet to make a claim to contact the 24-
hour claims hotline on 1800 252 461 or to speak with their insurance broker or adviser.

ENDS

Media Relations – Iwona Polski (03) 9916 3433 / 0411 010 496