More than 1300 Victorian households are waiting for their domestic insurance claims to be settled, with an unprecedented number of people seeking financial help.
The collapse of builder Porter Davis and other construction companies in 2023 led to the influx of cases being referred to the state-backed insurance agency.
More than 30 home owners impacted by builder collapses have now written to Premier Jacinta Allan and the Victorian Ombudsman seeking transparency over how claims are processed.
There were more than 4849 claims submitted since the beginning of March 2023 for incomplete homes or those with defects, according to the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority.
Some 213 of the 1359 outstanding claims are relate to Porter Davis and 462 were lodged on the day it collapsed.
About half of the outstanding cases were submitted within the last 30 days, the authority said.
The rest of the outstanding claims are connected to other companies and may include instances where the insurer has made an offer which has not yet been accepted.
About 1700 households in Victoria and Queensland were left in the lurch by the sudden collapse of Porter Davis in March 2023, with 560 clients not covered by insurance despite paying the construction giant before it went into liquidation.
That prompted the Victorian government to set up a $15 million bail-out scheme.
The letter sent to the ombudsman and premier over insurance concerns alleges issues such as a lack of transparency or prolonged claims which resulted in a "double catastrophe" for those affected.
"Our collective experiences with (the authority) have been fraught with unjustifiable delays, opaque decision-making, and outcomes that are unreasonable, oppressive, and grossly unfair," the letter says.
More than 1600 settlement offers have so far been made to Porter Davis customers worth more than $116 million.
Victorian Managed Insurance Authority chief executive Andrew Davies acknowledged it had been a difficult time for Porter Davis customers and their cases were often complex.
"(The authority's) priority is to get home owners into their homes as quickly as possible while supporting them to use a reputable builder, so they don’t find themselves in a similar situation in the future," he said.
The figures were revealed following a Freedom of Information request from the Victorian coalition.
Opposition home ownership and housing affordability spokesman Evan Mulholland said hundreds of people had been let down by an "unfair and protracted" insurance process.
“The last thing any victim of a home builder collapse should face is delay as they try to get their life back on track and achieve their dream of buying a home," he said.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas told reporters workers at the authority had been dealing with an unusually large volume of cases.
"They've acquitted themselves quickly and will continue to work co-operatively with those who have claims, recognising that in many cases the state stepped in where there was no insurance capacity," he said.
