I have been looking at various body corp /strata title insurance plans and I am quite confused.
I understand that unit owners have contents insurance, and the building is covered by the body corp insurance.
So say the kitchen in a unit gets damaged in flooding... does that count as part of contents or should that be covered by body corp?
Reason I am asking is I was looking at
NRMA's strata title insurance, and they only talk about common property.
I will try to clarify as best I can but it is increasingly becoming a minefield depending on your Body Corporate/Owners Corporation and a whole host of other factors between States and the type of Title your property is.
It used to be relatively simple, and as a general rule this probably still applies, but as mentioned there are more and more exceptions to this, some of which have been mentioned in other responses. As a general rule in relation to Strata Titled properties, the Body Corporate insurance will cover common areas as well as the building structure. The "building" in this case includes those built-in items that were included on the original body corporate unit plan, such as kitchens, built in cupboards, bathroom fittings and the like. The catch is that if these have been replaced at some stage, therefore not the original ones, they then become the responsibility of the owners contents insurance (my understanding is that now in NSW they are classed as building and the BC/OC insurance responsibility even if they have been replaced).
As mentioned, there are exceptions, often due to the BC/OC trying to reduce costs to owners by not insuring as much, but in doing so they put it back on to the owner to insure and are creating nightmares for insurers as well in trying to figure it out.
I'm happy to give you someone to call in our office but you will need to know as much as you can of what is covered by the BC/OC insurance policy. Private message me if you want a name to talk to.
Essentially our RentCoverUltra policy (and others like it) will cover the owners' contents, being carpets, curtains, blinds, light fittings, internal paint etc. The plus side (with RentCoverUltra - I can't speak for other policies) is that it can pick up on things that as it turns out are not covered by the BC/OC policy, this could mean the kitchen for example if it turns out that the BC/OC policy doesn't cover it. The policy was originally called "Landlords Extra Protection Policy" and that's largely how it is looked upon, to cover the things that the standard policies, or in this case the BC/OC policy, won't.
But it is limited in being up to $50,000 which in the vast majority of cases is plenty, particularly as most BC's would be covering the kitchen etc. We can insure for more but need to add on a further policy and it can skyrocket the premium.