Motor has become one of the most disputed products in the country, and the cause is not what most people assume. AFCA received 36,326 general insurance complaints in 2025, up 20% on 2024, with motor vehicle complaints reaching 12,879, up 18%, making it the second most disputed product overall. Behind those numbers is a single dominant driver, and it is not clients being told no.
The complaints are overwhelmingly about claims delays rather than denied claims. Clients are not disputing the outcome. They are disputing how long it took to get there, and how little they heard while they waited. A repair that drags on, an assessment that stalls, a phone call that is never returned. Delay, not refusal, is what pushes a client to lodge a complaint.
The regulator has responded by raising the standard of proof. AFCA updated its claim delay guidance in February 2026, and it now expects detailed chronological evidence, the firm’s position on whether the delay was reasonable, and a proposal to resolve it. Vague reassurances no longer satisfy AFCA. A firm defending a delay complaint needs a documented timeline showing what happened when and why, which puts a premium on record-keeping throughout the life of a claim.
The rewritten Code closes another gap. Insurers are now responsible for the quality and timeliness of authorised repairer work, so a delay caused by a repairer is no longer something the insurer can hold at arm’s length. That accountability changes the conversation a broker can have when a client’s repair stalls.
The broker position in all of this is, once again, strong. Broker complaints stayed below 1% of AFCA’s total, at 0.8%. Handling claims well is close to a complete defence against the complaint surge, because the thing clients complain about is precisely the thing a good broker manages: momentum and communication.
Clients notice, and they will pay for it. 95% of heavy broker users are satisfied with their claims experience, and 44% of businesses would pay more for a better claims experience with clear communication. The market is telling brokers that responsive, well-communicated claims handling is not a cost centre. It is something clients value enough to pay a premium for, in a year when the alternative is the delay-driven frustration filling AFCA’s inbox.
The lesson from a record complaints year is that the discipline of keeping claims moving, and documenting the movement, is both a compliance shield and a commercial advantage. The brokers who do it are the ones sitting comfortably in the 0.8%.
Keeping claims moving during peak season, when the volume is highest and the delay risk greatest, is exactly what our administrative and claims support is designed to handle, backed by compliance support that keeps your documentation to AFCA’s standard. To see how that support would fit your workload, get in touch with the team.