Landlord Building Insurance or Home Insurance?

[theperthurbanist]

Hi all,
So I am about to settle on a PPR that will become my IP after 6 months.
I am in the process of choosing home insurance and am wondering how the impending 'IP' status of my property would effect what cover I should go for?

Can I simply select the 'best' home insurance, then switch it to Landlord Building Insurance in 6 months? Do I even need to switch products?

I will also be intending on getting Landlord Insurance (rental cover, malicious and accidental damage) once it is an IP, is this typically bundled with 'Landlord Building Insurance' or always a separate product (apologies if i am confusing my terms)? Will my intention to sign this up in six months effect my choice of home insurer initially?

Any help much appreciated. Also any recommendations of insurers welcome!

 

[westminster]

I think I get what you are saying.
I am with SGIO and they do normal home and contents insurance and this is what you need at the beginning. When it becomes your IP you add their Landlord Insurance and you probably drop Contents insurance as there will be no contents.
With SGIO you still need to have Home (I think you call it Building Insurance) and then you add the Landlord Insurance
http://www.sgio.com.au/wa/home-insurance/landlord-insurance

 

[travelbug]

Yes I agree with above. Just get standard building and contents insurance. Then switch to the Landlord building when it becomes an IP.

 

[Plantagenet]

Akamai

One of my IPs was insured with AAMI landlord insurance which is basically building only. Don't let the landlord title fool you, you will need to add tenant protection on top if you want malicious damage and loss of rent cover.

Found out the ard way. I'm with GIO now .

 

[wylie]

Check out Youi. We just had our home insurance (own home) jump from $1200 to nearly $1700 with Suncorp. We waited five months to be told our mouldy carpet on our downstairs slab was NOT covered by their flood insurance, as it was overland flow or something like that.

I insured with Youi (similar cover but without flood cover) for less than $1000.

I recall asking our insurer for IPs whether I could drop the "landlord" part of the cover for houses with long term tenants where we had no need for it, but could not do that. I don't know if any insurer will insure an IP for just the building without the extras included in landlord cover.

But, for many years we did this... just insured for fire and usual cover, so either the insurers now insist on it, or I'm with a company that doesn't do it.

 

[travelbug]

NRMA didn't ask me for anything different because it was tenanted. I just got building insurance.
I have Landlord building with AAMI for another one.
It's very time consuming and frustrating trying to compare different policies but I'm making it my mission next year so I can reduce the amount I'm paying. Every little bit adds up to a big bit each year.

 

[wylie]

NRMA didn't ask me for anything different because it was tenanted. I just got building insurance.
I have Landlord building with AAMI for another one.
It's very time consuming and frustrating trying to compare different policies but I'm making it my mission next year so I can reduce the amount I'm paying. Every little bit adds up to a big bit each year.

I will ring around when they are next due. I am sure that years ago we didn't have landlord cover as we used to decide each year whether or not to take it out depending on the tenants we had and our feeling of how much the risk was of tenant damage.

There are only so many loooooong frustrating phone calls one person can manage and sometimes it is easier to just fiddle around the edges of the policy sent for renewal rather than go through a long phone call per house.

I tried to get around having to answer 100 questions when I went to the Youi site and tried to get an online quote, but it quickly told me I would be called. The call did take a long time, with dozens of questions, but the end result was worth it and saved me hundreds of dollars.

Am I ready to do that each time a renewal comes up? It is draining and the insurance companies rely on that knowing most/many people just pay up because it is easier than changing.

 

[brettc]

I recall asking our insurer for IPs whether I could drop the "landlord" part of the cover for houses with long term tenants where we had no need for it, but could not do that. I don't know if any insurer will insure an IP for just the building without the extras included in landlord cover.

You certainly can with us and there may be others out there that you can do the same. For a tenanted house for example we have the RentCoverPlatinum product which is essentially a defined risks Building & Contents policy, combined with our RentCoverUltra landlord policy.

There are some investors that do not wish to include the tenant-related risks so they can simply use the standard defined risks building & contents policy on its own, without the RentCoverUltra component.

I wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done. I presume others could do it too, but whether it's as straightforward as it is for us I couldn't say.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Check out Youi. We just had our home insurance (own home) jump from $1200 to nearly $1700 with Suncorp. We waited five months to be told our mouldy carpet on our downstairs slab was NOT covered by their flood insurance, as it was overland flow or something like that.

Hi Wylie,

Must definitely be location dependent with Suncorp.
I always find them the most competitive for multiple policies in the last couple of years.
Latest policy is building and contents for PPOR in Sydney.
Building covered for 1.4 mil (+25% for natural disaster), for $1600.
Was expection much higher than this.

Edit - 26th Nov 2012
I did an online quote with Youi, but it did not complete online and they say they will contact you, so I just proceeded with Suncorp as above.
They called me today and I told them I already committed, but spent the 10 mins to see what they could do, not expecting them to be competitive.
She told me I am entitled to cancel the Suncorp policy as it's in a cooling off period and worked hard for my business.
Anyway, they came back with $1280, which is awesome, covering up to 1.68 million of clean up and re-build costs + 50k contents.
Also 140k of alternative accomodation if required while re-building.

Youi is good.

 

[DaveM]

Found out the ard way. I'm with GIO now .

GIO do not cover loss of rent/default for tenants not on a fixed term lease. So for many landlords, its a worthless policy.

Read your PDS carefully. I moved away from them.

 

[z611143]

Who can someone recommend for an IP rented under a fixed term.

Do i just go with SGIO?

or any other recommendations.