IS EBM the best landlord insurance?

Yes, but insurance claims are across a very wide variety of reasons. One of my claims was for a fire that started due to the lint filter in the drier not being cleaned out since the tenant moved in. Model tenant, but ....

 

This happened to my 1st ever investment property in 2001, I thought TS would cover everything,i was mistaken.The same as you @DaveM they pulled out the same trick.

 

Me? It could be show n tell.

 

Need to write up yours as a case study.
There are so many others too, some agents really have no idea what to do when things go bad.

 

Quite seriously a book on the bad side would be a great idea.I always tinkered with the idea of "Looking through a furniture removalists eyes" i saw it all.Good,bad,sad,heartbreaking,excitement,arguments...lots of stuff i would get banned on here for if i raised them.

 

The multiple excess rule isnt a trick.

If it was malicious damage and an event occurred where the whole place was trashed at one time then one excess applies. However for room by room damage that a may be evident over a period of time especially if its literred and demonstrated poor hygeine and housekeeping and ongoing damage. Then its arguable that multiple excesses apply as multiple events occur....at different times. How many ?? Who knows....One bit of malicious damage at a time could be argued.

You would need to demonstrate that a malicious act occurred ie inspect prior to eviction and its all fine and then at eviction all walls are full of holes.

I have this issue at home at present. Hail damaged my roof. Water came in at one point and damaged ceiling. In another point it went over top of the AC unit and washed off a lot of dust and muck into the tray which then blocked the drain and progressively filled the drip tray. Then a week later water damage occurred... The SES reckon the water dripping caused drain to clog...Insurer needs to determine this is consequential to the hail impacts breaking the tile (seems plausible). Its a bit hard to argue either way. .Its now with insurer to determine if a single event (hail storm) was the cause or two event...I reckon its one but they arent sure.

 

What you may be referring to here are events which would simply not be covered at all by most insurer's, other than the specialist companies such as EBM and TS. Multiple excesses would refer to Accidental Damage claims and most companies don't cover them at all (most policies have one excess only on Malicious Damage claims). That said, with RentCover, excesses on Accidental Damage changed on February 1st to the advantage of the landlord, where there is now a maximum of 2 excesses applied.

So what you are left with now is that most major insurer's do not cover Accidental Damage (which is the higher percentage of damage claims) at all, or use a specialty insurer who will cover them but may apply multiple excesses for separate events (maximum two for RentCover but I can't speak for other policies). The other thing is the way excesses are applied with many policies such as they will not pay the equivalent of 4 weeks rent and THEN apply the excess, this will negate a high percentage of claims.

 

Hi @brettc

I've been reviewing a few landlord insurance in the line up of needing to apply for one soon. Since we are talking about excesses, is there any intention for EBM to make their excesses more competitive. It is $400 per claim but your competitors are half that amount.

At the moment this is the only thing holding me back from signing up with you guys.

 

You are referring to very limited number of competitors with an excess such as that, in fact many include excesses which essentially provide a double whammy, an excess on top of not paying the equivalent of 4 weeks rent. In all honesty I doubt there are any plans for a change to excesses in the near future. Insurance is largely a balancing act to ensure there is a logical balance between claims and premiums. Excesses are an important part of this. The change for example to a maximum of two events applying for Accidental Damage claims limits the effect. Of course there were a lot of new features also added including pet damage, flood etc. as well as increased limits to $65,000 recently so features have increased substantially. Bottom line is that we can't be everything unfortunately.

 

Hi Brett,
Can we choose not to have flood cover for the existing policies, which never had flood cover from the last year? I assume premium will be cheaper that way and, especially none of my properties is in floor prone zones at all.

 

I submitted a claim to EBM this week for the first time, for rental arrears of $824. It was from mid last year and I had forgotten all about it until I was preparing my FY16 tax paperwork.

Submitted Wed night... not only did they not have any issues with the claim being 9 months old, it was processed, approved and paid Thursday lunchtime. Excellent to deal with, and a far cry from my Terri Scheer claim.

 

What's the process of a claim with ebm?

 

Floods can happen anywhere, in non flood areas too.

 

I want to make a claim. Tenants let a dog urinate all over the carpet through the entire house. I had the carpets cleaned 2 times but the stink was still so strong, so I couldn't rent the place. I've had to replace the carpets now, and after 6 weeks maybe I have a new tenant moving in next week.
This isn't accidental damage but malicious damage, but on the claim forms it wants a police report, but I don't have a police report for a dog that urinated all over the house.
I allowed a dog but it was supposed to be out side. PM said (which I've terminated now) said they had more than 1 dog and always inside when they inspected.

Anyway do you guy's think this is a claimable without a police report? or not even claimable at all?
And on top of that I don't know where the tenants have gone which is another thing they want on the form.

I'm with EBM

 

Not sure that a dog urinating is malicious damage. If you have cover for damage caused by tenants animals this is more likely to be the place where it is covered. Check your cover to see if you have cover that is likely to cover this event. And replacing all the carpet may be a stretch expectation for the insurer

 

Well I see no other option but to file a police report against said dog! Dogs these days...

 

I had a similar situation as yours (cat wee and rental arrears) and EBM made it very difficult for my Property Manager.

EBM will stuff you around. They'll cover rental arrears, but despite their pet clause for damage, they won't cover you at all. My property manager renewed the policy all before this happened and made it incredibly difficult.

 

Thanks guy's. I'll just put it down to learning. Never ever again will I allow a dog.

 

It also comes down to the property and tenant selection. i.e. I don't usually allow pets for property if it has carpet and if possible, not first time owner. As a pet owner, it's either the pet allowed inside and outside or no pets at all.

 

You can certainly submit a claim for this to be looked at by clicking here and completing a claim form with as much information as possible. Alternatively give us a call on 1800 661 662 and we can get it rolling over the phone.

Pet Damage is a claimable event but is only a recent introduction, it is automatically include for new policies commencing on or after 1st February 2017, or policies renewed on or after 1st April 2017. Policies can be upgraded if they are not yet due for renewal by contacting us.

Just to clarify the comment regarding malicious damage however. Damage caused by a pet is not malicious damage and does not require a police report. A dog or any pet, no matter how clever they are, cannot cause damage with “malicious intent”. Damage caused by a pet falls under “accidental damage” in RentCover. Theoretically it is possible the tenant may have left the pet inside with malicious intent but that would be very difficult to prove.