Insurance for Student Accomodation in QLD

[bradje]

Hi,
Just bought a place to do up and put 6 students in, located in sunny QLD.
I understand that if the students are all on ONE lease, then most insurance companies (eg AAMI). will cover any claims.
If the students are on separate lease agreements, then u need to go to a more specialised Insurance firm as it is considered a boarding house.

So, does anyone have all students on one lease? Does it work OK if a claim is made?
Thankyou,
John

 

[sundirtwater]

Also, see this in yesterday's Sunshine Coast paper:
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/may/18/share-houses-may-not-be-insured/

 

[wylie]

Isn't there something about only five (?) unrelated people renting, and that somehow changes the rules. We have never had that situation so I don't know the details, but it has come up on here before. The RTA website would be the first place to look, but I am sure Ozperp knows the ins and outs of this situation.

Edit: Just realised you are wondering about insurance - but the RTA rules may be of interest anyway, just in case they affect your situation in other ways.

 

[Perp]

So, does anyone have all students on one lease? Does it work OK if a claim is made?

The first issue is whether you can find six students who are willing to sign a single lease; I would think that was pretty difficult.

If you can, then I would think you'd be looking at regular landlord's insurance, but ask the insurance company rather than us.

If you decide you want to go down the road of specialised insurance, then PM me and I'll give a contact for my guy, who specialises in this niche.

 

[Mamaof3]

6 is definitely not ok in SA but even if it was, to have 6 students who may not have necessarily started their lease all the same day would make a nightmare for collecting rents!!

we used to do alot of student accomodation and the thought of that makes me cringe

i'd be very careful even if someone does tell you its ok if they're all on the 1 lease (get it in writing from insurers) because most insurers back when we did it wouldn't look at it when rooms were sublet with people who weren't related to one another. We did manage to end up getting fairly reasonably priced insurance (i think it was $1500/yr) with our nominated prices for replacement of building, malicious damage etc..so would've been cheaper had we not selected those higher replacement costs to cover our bums. Boarding house insurance on the other hand can be very expensive....i think i got quotes between $5K-$9K!

 

[bradje]

Thankyou all for your input
JB