Landlord insurance

I am going through a claim through EBM. It is interesting they have a section where they ask the age of painting as in when it was last repainted and when the floor finishing carpet tiles or floorboards was laid they then calculate the depreciation and minus off the total amount of the claim. I find it strange they would do that. Although yes they do have any excess periods but that the depreciation itself is more than the average 4 week period excess of rent.

I must say they are fast and acted very professionally.

 

Thank you Brett for pointing this out! I had spotted that difference with the policies but not fully considered - understand completely so will definitely review now.

 

I'm with AAMI. They've got a complete building replacement policy where you don't have to specify the building value. The price is very competitive too. Hopefully they are good with claims.

 

As an investor, and now within the business processing landlord claims, it's my experience that non-specialist providers try much harder to get out of paying claims than the specialist providers.

A specialist provider's whole business depends on LLs whereas the banks etc. simply have added it as a product in recognition of the increased investor demand. Having seen claims processed first hand with the major banks and other providers discussed here, there is no way I would be insuring my properties with them.

If you must, then as far as bank insurers go I have found Suncorp to be quite good in the past and interestingly, they wholly own Terri Scheer.

- Andrew

 

Yes, Suncorp own TS but the policy Suncorp offers is not that good, it is probably better for OO.

If you look closely at a lot of the regular insurers, the LL part of the policy will be useless for many LL items.

 

I have researched many companies over the years. All I can say is read the PDS and UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE COVERED FOR. If it does not say you are covered ......don't expect to be covered. I have posted many times on coverage. I would not touch specialty companies, for every extra bit of coverage you get you double that in exclusions - often inadvertently trying to limit extra cover to where it was intended. Those I would consider and subject to your individual situation - Allianz (been with them for a few years but premium went up this year to closer to other reasonable insurers), Suncorp - good coverage last review but expensive, Comminsure - my boss with several IP's has his insurance with them and are good to deal with (unlike years back where they were in a mess) and does not consider a loss of rent claim as a claim which affects NCB, unlike Allianz I got quotes from recently which which turned a cheaper quote into a dearer one.

Read my previous posts here and on Somersoft!

 

Yes, read the PDS, and then do some further checks.

I would not go near some you mention, and find it odd that you say specialty companies, what ones do you mean, because the 2 for LL often mentioned on this forum are quite well regarded for LL issues.

 

Have a read of cover and exclusions - not an easy task with some. Set up a spread sheet for comparison. You will usually find yourself flicking back and forward. I used to work in insurance so have a bit of a radar for what to look for and when to re-read as wording can easily be misread or interpreted. I even found myself insured with a company for 2 years before realizing a crucial bit of cover was missing - cover for loss of rent due to damage to property which occurred between tenants. Example: tree falls through house while untenanted for 2 days between tenants. For policies which do not provide cover for an incident which occurs whilst no lease is in place (or has been signed ready to commence) this means you have no cover for loss of rent for the period it would take for repairs which could be many months. You would have otherwise had a paying tenant once a new lease started if not for the damage.

Many policies don't cover this. As for the specialty policies covering extra things, yes they do, but soooo many more exclusions, excluding things others would cover - often inadvertently while trying to exclude cover elsewhere. The easiest LL PDS I have ever read was AAMI, so simple, minimal exclusions, but very basic cover.

 

Me too...I've both both of my IP with AAMI as my lender wanted complete replacement cover on the building. I've made several claims with AAMI in the past few years and I have always been impressed with their hassle free and quick claim process. ive had a few claims of around $3000 and another claim of around $32,000 and all processed with very little hassle. After reading another thread in here recently I contacted EBM and Terri Scheerer (if that's how you spell it) and EBM and Terri were notiabke more expensive when factored in the building replacement cover. I looked extensively at the policy coverage offered by all three and while there are some differences none of those differences were significant enough to suggest AAMI is offering a lesser policy. AAMI has better flood, storm and other water related coverage by far.

 

I have all my policies with AAMI - for 15 properties. They have been flawless in their service the few times I have had cause to make a claim... I honestly havent even considered looking elsewhere.

That doesnt mean other providers aren't as good or better - but AAMI have been excellent in my experience.

 

Do you mean you have building with aami and LL insurance with a specialised insurer?
This is what I currently have as I'm worried about building being underinsured/ exclusions, plus I like the option to pay building by the month

Interested to know if aami are okay for LL as I would move this to them as I've always had good experiences with aami

 

No I have LL insurance with AAMI. I also have building insurance with them.

 

@brettc Thank you. Just got my tax invoice and discount

 

Yep I noticed Honan has gone up for strata LL insurance in NSW from $340 to $355pa.....AND this includes the fact that emergency services levy is now part of council rates collection (eg should have gone down in costs).

I checked EBM and was $351pa.......but not a big enough discount to make me want to move all of our LL insurance policies over.

 

The removal of the FSL in NSW is a gradual change to disappear by June 30 2017. So any reduction in insurance premiums is only gradual, and complicated unfortunately. They have really made it difficult for Insurers to implement the change.

By the way, the first year discount for PropertyChat members is quite significant, but it is only for the first year.

 

hi.. Have just purchased an investment property with settlement in July.
The bank requires it to be insured prior to settlement, is this something that EBM can do? I don't have a tenant yet as It will be rented out in July.

 

Absolutely. Just call 1800 661 662 and describe your circumstances. They will advise the best way to go about it. Make sure you mention you are a PropertyChat member. If you have any problem send me a private message.

 

Thanks Brett for your prompt reply. Quick qn - the property is located within a heritage overlay precinct. There are 4 to 5 streets in that Precinct which features californian bungalow homes. I notice some of the online quotes ask is this property heritage protected. I assume they don't mean overlay?

 

I don't know enough about the technicality of a Heritage Overlay myself so will see if I can get an answer to be sure. We have a question along this line which refers to whether it is subject to a heritage listing, but this is referring to the specific property I would believe.

 

You can take out insurance on any property you have an interest in with all insurers I know. Just answer the questions they ask & they will advise if there is a problem.