The Office of the Short Term Ombud (“OSTI”) published its annual report for 2019 – with the mission of resolving short-term insurance complaints fairly, efficiently and impartially.
CIB has claimed their best OSTI results yet – take a look at what CIB has managed to achieve from a complaints, overturn rate and claims perspective below…
Summary of the OSTI report:
19% of motor vehicle claim disputes referred to OSTI were found in favour of the insured. The majority of the complaints received related to accidental damage, followed by warranty and mechanical breakdown claims.
The majority of complaints on home owners’ policies concerned damage caused by acts of nature, such a storm damage and rejections due to wear and tear, gradual deterioration and lack of building maintenance being the proximate cause of the loss. 15% of homeowner’s disputes were resolved in favour of the insured.
Disputes around household content claims related, for the most part, to under-insurance, replacement values and proof of ownership. Second to this is the failure to meet underwriting criteria, such as minimum security requirements. 18% of household content disputes were resolved in the insureds’ favour.
Commercial disputes comprised mostly motor vehicle and building complaints with the majority relating to rejections due to gradual deterioration, wear and lack of maintenance. 18% of commercial insurance disputes were resolved in favour of the insured.
“Other” and non-claim related complaints include complaints on other insurance products, such as travel insurance, legal expenses or medical gap cover for instance and also general policy-related issues such as policy cancellations, premium increases and service-related complaints. 34% of complaints in this category were found in favour of the insured.
CIB 2019 OSTI results:
Considering CIB’s statistics, our rejection ratio for 2019 was only 2,7% out of the rejections, of which 5,5% were referred to OSTI.
None of the complaints considered by OSTI to date for the 2019 period were overturned in the insured’s favour, which evidences the following:
- CIB are conservative in our rejection philosophy.
- CIB only reject claims when there are valid grounds upon which to do so.
- CIB’s rejection methodology is sound and consistent.
