Just posting my story in the hope it may save others some grief... In Nov last year one of my tenant's leases was up for renewal. Hey was an unreliable payer and the agent suggested we let it turn into a periodic lease. I guess she thought it would make it easier to terminate them if required.. Time goes by and they stop paying rent. The agent is slow to respond and we end up in the tribunal. Of course they are granted 2 weeks to make amends. No rent is received, so we go back to the tribunal and get an eviction order. A sheriff is booked and we wit a further 3 weeks (!) for this law enforcement service I paid $346 for to be executed. The tenants are then removed and I have to allow them a further 14 days to remove their belongings. Of course they turn up on the last day and take 1 suitcase, leaving 12 mattresses and a 4 bedroom house full of furniture, junk, cockroaches, fleas and a stench. All up I'm out of pocket about $15k on the cleanup, repair and lost rent. I have landlords insurance with Suncorp. I now know that the PDS states they will only pay 2 weeks lost rent if the lease is periodic this incurs a additional $500 excess. They don't pay for any of the cleanup, smell removal, pest control or rubbish removal. If I could convince them that some of the damage was malicious (holes in walls, broken window, kitchen cupboard doors removed etc) I'll incur another additional $500 excess. After paying my standard and two additional excesses, it is not worth making a claim, so I'm going to wear the $15k in expenses myself. I don't expect the property manager to know the ins and outs of all policies, but I would have expected she would have processed enough claims in the past to know that many companies do not pay lost rent if there is a periodic agreement in place. As it turns out, her idea about having a periodic lease making it easier to ditch the tenants had no positive influence. The tenants had no intention of going anywhere and in the end the type of lease made no difference in that regard. Long story, but my point is KNOW YOUR PDS and don't pay for worthless insurance. Can anyone recommend an insurance co with better terms for landlords please?
I found out that the hard way with S#######,when I was self managing over year and a half ago.. The first question the insurance will ask if where is a copy of the lease and if you say "Periodic" then it goes downhill fast from there ..I would have a talk to your accountant first ,because it's not as bad as you think..imho..
Thanks for your reply. Would you mind elaborating? If there's a ray of sunshine to be had here, I'd hate the accountant to miss it! Thanks.
I'm not a accountant ,but the last time we went through this it worked out quite well around tax time that fin year.. Plus maybe find a new property manager ,one would think they would explained how this clause works ,and it's never for the landlord..PM will say sorry and do it all again..
I had a similar claim as yours on a house insured by Terri Scheer. $12k damage, I ended up getting $9k back after some arguing. I now have everything with EBM and the couple of claims I have made have been easy and painless
Any recommendations? When Brisbane went under water in 2011, Suncorp was the one shining insurance co. who didn't argue the nitty gritty wording around flood cover. I consider them to be quite respectable. EBM. Thanks I will look into that today.
Its important to understand what is covered and what isnt. Many people assume damage means its covered. That's far from the case. Wear and tear is not insured. Wear and tear can be seen by owners as damage when it involves poor condition after tenancy ends. Stains, filth, odours, marks on walls and more. Sometimes much more. And then there is the damage. If a tenant has a party and wrecks the place in one night the insurer would likely meet the claim with a single excess if that was evident just after a inspection and a event occurred (ie a party, Police attending etc). But if over a period of three months the tenant has systematically damaged the place with holes etc then its easily argued a single event didnt occur. Multiple excesses....And major shortfalls occur. Some have internal rules governing how many excesses eg Max 10. So $5K is not covered. A question to ask. One of the problem areas is also depreciable v's deductible. Lets use carpets as an example. You have 10 year old carpets and they seems OK and are now damaged and need replacement. Well you can replace them but the cost is NOT deductible since its a capital item being replaced. Only the old carpet can be written off but if it has no value left then no deduction. The new carpet starts being depreciated with a token deduction v's the cost incurred. Same with appliances etc. Some of the other traps: - Tenancy is defined by resi tenancies act and you dont have a lease - Informal lease may be a problem - Short stays may be uninsured if your policy refers to tenancies - Damage caused by a visitor or a person not named on lease - Vermin - Waste removal - Rent arrears clauses - Adjustments for item age - Inability to prove inspections and condition I always recommend all costs for the fix need to be carefully broken down so repairs which may be deductible can be maxed out v's those not deductible. Note that wall / door / window repairs are often deductible since you arent replacing all the walls and doors etc. A fully trashed kitchen can be a problem if the kitchen is a write off and before its cleared away speak to your QS about scrapping deductions !! EBM get good reviews for their policies. The other key factor is a great PM to avoid skank tenants
I find it hard to believe that people agree to things without actually bothering to know what they are agreeing to. But it happens ever day.
One common claim issue I left off - General wear and tear. eg : My roof leaks, water enters from neighbour above, failed flashing, gutter fell off in a downpour, termites etc Typically are maintenance issues and the insurer may cover resulting damage only. Note the root cause may be at owner expense. Insurance isnt meant to fix defects. Its is meant to rectify damage resulting from defined acts or events not excluded by the policy. eg a car drives into your home is covered by CTP not the home insurance
A few things stand out here for me. Your last line is asking about a better place for your insurance. Why isn't there the same question about you PM? As you state, they were slow to respond. Getting rid of the furniture - I'm sure the local council would have a hard waste collection or a charity would take some of the stuff. Very minimal cost except time. Unfortunate if you live remotely. Holes in the wall, broken window, doors off hinges could be deemed as separate events? So possible there could be separate Excess each time. Did these all happen since the last inspection? Smell removal, pest control are unlikely to be insurable anywhere so don't hold this one against Suncorp. My suspicion is that it wouldn't only be Suncorp who would not be paying out a lot on a situation described like this......
agree we only discover how good an insurance company is when we need to make a claim. we have evicted a tenant with a SACAT order, failed to leave on the day but vacated a day or so later, leaving rubbish, damaged carpets/blinds/curtains/walls and old dirty furniture. locks changed every lock was destroyed. agent did an exit report and pictures. a few days later we were notified by police the property had been broken into. our insurance is with Terri sheer landlord and another 1 with them for building insurance. the agent has the full bond but it will not cover all that is required to relet. they are getting quotes to fix and quantify and prepare insurance claims. the property was painted and new floor coverings/window treatments/air conditioner/and dishwasher approx. 2years ago. the tenant had been there since July. time will tell the extent of our losses.
For those who don't know, Terri Scheer and Suncorp are one and the same. EBM RentCover uses the same insurer as ANZ if you absolutely must keep it with a bank.
It's true that EBM RentCover is underwritten by QBE, and so is the ANZ policy, but that's where the resemblance ends. The actual policies have nothing to do with each other and are completely different in features etc.
Terri Sheer was bought by Suncorp who own loads of insurance brands, . You will find policy variances across all their products. Suncorp brands include (also others) : GIO (NSW) AAMI, Apia, Just Car Insurance, Shannons, InsureMyRide, Vero, Terri Scheer, Bingle, CIL, Asteron and Tyndall insurance brands in Australia, and Vero, Asteron, Guardian Trust, Tyndall, Vero Liability, AA Insurance, SIS, CMV/AXIOM and Autosure What does "keep it with a bank" mean ? Banks arent insurers. The bank just uses a labelled product which may be same, similar or very different with same underwriter. Financiers cannot specify an insurer under consumer laws.
property managers tend to suggest brands of landlord insurance, from memory many years ago a disclosure was made about the amount of commission the insurance paid them, is this still the case?
It's possible someone wants all their policies in one place for multi policy discounts or whatever reason. Of course that makes it doubly important to read the PDS as I've seen some that exclude landlord insurance from multi-policy discounts, and some where the exclusions make it so useless as to completely negate any discount.
