Eighteen months after Cyclone Debbie destroyed their Queensland home, Glenn and Julie Sutton are still waiting for it to be rebuilt and have no idea when they will be able to move back in.
"It's just not right," Mr Sutton told the banking royal commission.
Their insurance claim with Youi has been mishandled from the beginning, he said.
"It's an absolute shambles," he said on Wednesday.
"You know, you take out insurance hoping that it never happens but if it does, you want them to have your back. You want to know they're going to look after you and it just didn't happen."
The Suttons' Cannonvale home, near Airlie Beach, was demolished but the repairs have yet to begin.
Mr Sutton said he decided to share his story with the royal commission because a lot of people were in the same situation.
"We are just the tip of the iceberg.
"Whatever happens out of this whole inquiry, the whole thing needs to be much more transparent, there needs to be some accountability so that people don't have to go through this."
The inquiry heard an insurer asked an eight-year-old boy to make a list of all the toys he lost when a bushfire destroyed his family home.
People who lost everything in the Blue Mountains bushfires in 2013 were asked to make a detailed list of all the contents they had lost.
It was retraumatising for them and likely to result in an under-estimation of their loss, Legal Aid NSW said.
Australian Associated Press