Choosing landlord insurance

With all insurances, you are best to attain quotes from as many as possible.

Insurers will only carry so much risk of a certain type in an area so if you want to use a company that is carrying your type of risk above the number that they have want to hold then you will pay a higher $$$ to compensate them.

So an insurer that you may have had for many years who has been cheap may suddenly not be due to other risk that they hold or circumstances changing.

 

The only time you find out how good insurance companies are is when you make the appointment for the insurance company assessor too look at all the damage,then tells you your not covered for the type of flood in the policy,from my experience with floods and trees smashing into houses "Suncorp" were very good ,,paid most claims in the streets we were flooded,we have everything with Suncorp "NOW"
before the last flood we were with another company and that is in class action..imho..

 

It was known before the 2011 floods that Suncorp covered for flood and most other insurers didn't, to be fair. People just hadn't read their PDSs.

 

This is still available for new RentCoverUltra and RentCoverPlatinum policies and applies to the first 12 months. There is a box on the final application page under "Additional Details" which asks for a promotional code if you have one. You can enter "Somersoft" in there for now, I need to organise to use the term "PropertyChat" but haven't got around to it yet so Somersoft will do for now. It won't reduce the premium on the screen but it will when you receive your invoice.

 

Thanks Brett, but I actually got my brother in law to get me insurance instead. It was $100 cheaper which makes a bit of a difference on a sub $400 policy.
The only thing with this one is that it comes with a $5000 excess.

 

Then I would have thought the more expensive policy was a bargain.

 

Each to their own. I think that $5000 isn't going to make a significant impact on my life if the house burns down.

 

OK, if you're only interested in the building insurance component, fair enough. I thought you might want to use the landlord insurance component as well.

Why not just buy straight building insurance, then?

 

Each to their own indeed, if you are only concerned about covering a total loss then I guess that's okay. But given the incidence of sub-$5,000 claims (the vast majority) then I would never recommend someone do that. A $5,000 excess will limit you to only claiming in very severe situations, even the majority of storm damage claims etc. would be ruled out. Should you miss out on claiming a relatively average claim with rent loss and a bit of damage (let's say $2,500) it will take you 25 years of saving $100 per year to recoup it.

 

Brett, there has been some discussions regarding smoke alarms and annual servicing from "specialist" companies. Where does EBM sit with regards to this?

Do we as property owners insured by EMB need to arrange these contractors or can we have an electrician do it or we stay with the terms in the states act?

Cheers

 

I am with EBM and having experienced a first hand insurance claim through them, I would definitely, absolutely, undoubtedly use them again in a heartbeat I have recommended quite a few mates too!

 

Under the terms of our RentCover Policies, it is not a specific requirement to have smoke alarms to be installed or serviced at the property. That said, you do have to take all necessary steps to minimise any claim under the policy and having smoke alarms and regular servicing does assist with this requirement in the event of a fire.

 

Hi brettc, I have 3 questions for you if you don't mind:

1) Does EBM do just landlord insurance, or also building? I currently have it split between AAMI (building) and TS (landlord), and I'd like to combine them.

2) Do I get a discount if I have 6-8 houses to bring over?

3) What type of insurance do I need if I have a home business in one of my houses?

 

Thanks Brett for answering the question.

 

I thought it best to reply to you directly which I have now done.

 

@brettc or anyone else who might be able to help - Previously I have used AAMI for landlord and building insurance under one policy - I won't be doing that again. If I use EBM rent cover is this also building insurance ? or is there a way of combining the insurance ? Thanks

 

Yes I am with EBM for all my properties, I would prefer if there was a monthly direct debit as 5k over 3months for insurance can be a killer.

I made my first claim last year. The only thing I didn't like was that I had to do all the leg work. Photos, claim, quotes x 3. My personal insurance is with HBF and they do everything I just pay an excess and done...note..excess I think was 200. An idiot drove through a brick fence at the front of an IP.

 

Yes if you use RentCoverPlatinum it includes building, contents and landlords. Essentially it is a defined risks building policy bundled with the RentCoverUltra policy (tenant risks and contents).

 

There should be a pinned thread for business promotion or something, this will be useful if I manage to purchase IP this year, now that I'm no longer using the previous BA