While Rick waited for his insurance payout, mushrooms sprouted in his flooded Victorian home. He’s not alone

A flooded street in Shepparton, Victoria, in October 2022. Insurance companies are generating a record 100 complaints a day as they reject or struggle to handle day-to-day claims, according to data from the financial complaints authority. Photograph: AAP

When Rick Maloney’s home in Mooroopna, Victoria, flooded in 2022, he had to fight for two years before his insurer paid to fix the damage. In that time, the building sank into the soft earth and mushrooms grew between his floorboards.

“I had the skirtings coming away from the walls, I had the cracking in the walls … [but the insurer would] push me down another avenue … time-wasting, in the hope that I’d just walk away,” Maloney says.