strata insurance and cover for what?

I can see my strata management is paying a lot for insurance, but I really don't know what is covered in the insurance, let's say if there is drainage problem within common pipes (not inside a unit) or water pipes burst or roof water penetration due to heavy rain, i thought these all should be fixed by strata as they are insured, some of them should be claimable as part of their insurance. Yet they don't seem want to pay for it, every time this happens, they want to raise a special levy for fixing it.

or they want to setup a new by-law stating that if common property is exclusively used by a unit owner, then that unit owner is liable to pay its own fix....guess this can reduce everyone's pitch in for fixing things if the damage doesn't happen to my own unit, however it seems that strata is trying get out of the responsibility of fixing anything. I don't know what I'm paying for the strata fee now, just for paper work administration?? is it worth over $600/qtr (small complex of 12)...seriously?

has anyone else wondered the same thing? where the money go?? and what's insured?

 

O mG .. I feel your pain.. Everytime i call the Strata they have an excuse on why it shouldnt be fixed by them .. I pay $1209 every 3 months and dont see much return.
Along with Council Rates , Landlord Insurance etc its hard to make a rental profit from Strata owned IP's

They even took my glass window down that i had on my balcony for over 10 years.
They even hired a special crane to do it.. Didnt charge me a thing, but what was the point of that ??
Last year in our building we had Special Levys of $2500 per quarter added onto the $1209.

I really gave up on buying Strata apartments.
My other Ip is a house on the Central Coast NSW which i would make far more profit on renting than my City PPOR !!

This is WHY you must look at Strata Fees before you buy because you still have Council Rates, Water Rates, and Landlord insurance .
Great when you see low priced units for sale in the Country only to dig deeper and find there Strata fees are high and their Council Rates double of Sydney (Moree ,NSW)

New Strata Laws come into effect next year in NSW giving MORE power to the Strata , meaning they can now issue fines etc .

 

@newbie property - Although the bc may have insurance it doesn't cover maintenance issues. A burst pipe is an insurable event so is overflowing of downpipes however not all damage is covered hence why you are required to maintain your own contents insurance.

How much are you paying for your ppor building insurance, what does that cover? Who cleans your gutters, mows your lawns, looks after your gardens, trims trees, mulches, sweeps paths, puts bins out/cleans them etc?

Oh! You do all that yourself so it costs nothing. This isn't the case in strata it is not a cooperative community but a number of individual owners with different objectives and conflicting interests who would pay for a more efficient and leisurely lifestyle hiring help to complete these tasks rather than undertaking these duties themselves.

If you want to know what is covered by the insurance ask your exec committee for the policy details don't just ***** about it being expensive. The strata Manager has gone to the market and presented quotes to the bc with their recommendations and noted the fee for the insurance which they will receive. Have they recommended the best policy for the strata or for them?

 

The insurance is yours shared with other owners, it covers building usually, you have to do own contents.

Check the policy. It is shared by all owners & you can look at it.

 

I would suggest to anyone owning property in a strata to join the executive committee of the body corporate. You can join as a member. Go to the next AGM and you will learn what your money is being spent on and will be able to have your say. You should also be sent the minutes of meetings and the financial statements that show breakdown of costs. Last year I shopped around for the strata' building insurance and the committee where happy to accept the change of insurer and the saving of $600 in premium. The insurance broker gave the strata manager 3 quotes to compare. The one I sourced was cheaper than the lowest of the 3 and offered better cover! The other saving we made was on rubbish clean up. We were paying a ridiculous amount $160 a month for someone to keep public area tidy of rubbish which was minimal anyway, scrap of paper here or there. This job was added to new cleaning company we sourced that also cleans the stairwells, doors, windows etc at a much better price. So it definitely pays to get involved in your financial interest. When I first joined I intended to sit back and watch the proceedings but once you're there you can't help but get involved.

 

As said, get involved. Go to the meetings where you can ask questions.
Marg