A Lions Club volunteer says he feels "ripped off" after a community bus used to take Adamstown pensioners on weekly outings was written off after a crash.
Ilo Bozinovski said the 12-seater bus was written off when a volunteer driver hit a power pole at the corner of Glebe and Macquarie roads in March 2024.
The incident sparked a dispute with NRMA Insurance that has continued for more than two years.
Despite the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) finding in favour of NRMA Insurance, Mr Bozinovski argues the insurer should have repaired the bus.
"All NRMA basically had to do was physically either repair the door or replace the door, pure and simple," Mr Bozinovski said.
"We've got a long way to go to try to recoup something that was unjustly stripped away from us, a valuable asset," he said.
Mr Bozinovski said the initial damage appeared limited to the vehicle's sliding door and window, and believed the bus could have been repaired for a fraction of the amount that was quoted.
The dispute was taken to AFCA, which found the bus was insured for an agreed value of $9500 at the time of the crash, and that the Lions Club had accepted that amount by paying the policy premium.
An NRMA Insurance spokeswoman said when a customer makes a claim after an accident, its priority is their safety and supporting them through the claims process.
"We always aim to assess the damage to their vehicle and settle their claim as quickly as possible, in line with their policy," the spokeswoman said.
"When a damaged vehicle is assessed as a total loss, a customer's claim is settled for the agreed value of the vehicle, as set out in their policy.
"AFCA determined our assessment of the damaged vehicle and settlement of the claim to be fair and reasonable."
The vehicle was insured for an agreed value of $29,700 in 2013, but that value was reduced at each renewal to $9500 by the time of the crash.
AFCA found that the club was responsible for reviewing the agreed value each time the policy was renewed.
Mr Bozinovski said the premium was signed off on by someone else and if he had known about the $9500 valuation, he would not have agreed to it.
"I argued the point that they shouldn't have reduced the value of the bus," he said.
AFCA found the damage extended beyond the sliding door, with photographs showing "scraping and long dent" along the side of the bus towards the rear.
"The damage was not only to the side door and was not purely cosmetic," the AFCA determination said.
"The insurer correctly and fairly assessed the vehicle to be a total loss."
Mr Bozinovski disputes that assessment, arguing the damage was cosmetic and the bus was mechanically sound.
He argues damage to parts of the bus that the club did not claim for was included in the repair quote.
"We would have been better off to bloody go to a dismantler, buy another door window complete, take it to a smash repairer and get them to take the old one out and slip the other one in," Mr Bozinovski said.
"I've just been abandoned."
AFCA acknowledged that Mr Bozinovski may have only made a claim for the side door, but found it was "fair and reasonable" for NRMA Insurance to assess and obtain quotes to repair all of the damage to the vehicle.
"To do otherwise may have meant the insurer was not fulfilling its obligations under the policy," the AFCA determination said.
The authority also rejected Mr Bozinovski's argument that the insurer should have allowed the organisation to retain the damaged bus.
Under the policy, AFCA found a damaged item becomes the insurer's property when a claim is settled unless the insurer allows the policyholder to keep it.
It also found the club was not entitled to compensation for non-financial loss, concluding NRMA Insurance had handled the claim in line with good industry practice.
Despite the findings, Mr Bozinovski believes the entire ordeal ended in the "unnecessary" costly loss of a vehicle that provided an important service to pensioners.
He said the club would now have to rely on fundraisers, including sausage sizzles and markets, to rebuild its reserves.
"We're a service club, and we support charities, and we also support members of the community," he said.
"The bus has a purpose, and the purpose is it takes people out of solitude one day a week out of their home."
