Complaints

Te Whakatakoto Whakapae

Making a Complaint

Te Whakatakoto Whakapae

How to make a  complaint

If you have a complaint about your insurer under the Fair Insurance Code, the first step is to lodge a complaint with your insurer directly. Each insurer has an internal complaints process and will work with you to attempt to resolve the issue.

Your rights when making a complaint

When you make a formal complaint under the Fair Insurance Code, your insurance company will:

  • acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five (5) business days
  • respond to your complaint within 10 business days
  • advise you of your right to take your complaint to their independent external dispute resolution scheme if they are unable to resolve your complaint within two (2) months.
If you and your insurer are unable to reach a resolution, your insurer will send you a letter confirming your complaint is deadlocked. You can escalate your complaint to the insurer’s independent external dispute resolution scheme after receiving a letter of deadlock, or if your complaint has been unresolved for more than two (2) months.

External dispute resolution schemes

Any insurer who provides their services to retail customers must belong to an approved external dispute resolution scheme under the Financial Services Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008.

External dispute resolution schemes are free to the insurer’s customers but do have some limits on what types of complaints they can consider. For instance, they cannot review complaints relating to commercial decisions (such as premium or policy terms) or where the amount in dispute is greater than $350,000 (plus GST if applicable). Disputes greater than these amounts will need to be heard in either the District or High Court.

External dispute resolution schemes investigate complaints and try to resolve them by negotiation or mediation, where possible. They are approved by the Minister of Consumer Affairs under this Act and must be: 

  • independent
  • fair
  • accessible
  • accountable
  • efficient
  • effective.

Your insurer will belong to one of two approved dispute resolution schemes:

  1. Financial Services Complaints Limited – a Financial Ombudsman Service
  2. Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman

ICNZ's Code Compliance Committee

The role of the ICNZ Code Compliance Committee is to investigate any unresolved significant breach that is reported to ICNZ once it has been through the insurer’s internal disputes resolution process and external disputes resolution scheme.

If the Committee agree that there has been a significant breach that has brought the industry into disrepute, they will report the breach to the Board of ICNZ and recommend a sanction to be applied. The ICNZ Board then makes the final decision about whether a sanction should be applied. The ICNZ Board is able to reprimand members, terminate their membership, or impose a fine of up to $100,000. Any fine money is used by ICNZ to pursue financial capability programmes for the public.

The Code Compliance Committee is currently made up of the following independent members:

  • Dr Warren Young QSO – Principal Operations Adviser, Independent Police Conduct Authority.
  • Hon David Caygill – former Minister of Finance, partner at Buddle Findlay, and Commissioner of Environment Canterbury.
  • Diane Morcom CNZM – former Secretary of the Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council.

The Compliance Committee is chaired by Tim Grafton (ICNZ CE).

 

Complaints data

ICNZ has long collected and published Fair Insurance Code complaints data in its Annual Review. The summary below is for the 2022 calendar year.