Landlord Insurance Recommendation

Hi all,

With so many companies out there offering landlord insurance, what have people found to be comprehensive and good value?

Couldn't find a comparison website.

Thanks!
 
I'm with APIA and haven't had to claim but had to make a claim with the NRMA for an unoccupied house undergoing renovation and, after wrangling, they paid up but, before that, they sent me a letter telling me I had about 8 weeks before they were terminating my policy as the house was over 100 years old...so watch out for these slippery little practices they spring on you. If they had included the age of the house as a question, I would have happily told them.
 
I was recommended Honan by a few people. Also queried my PM and they have not had any issues getting payment for their client from Honan.
 
I was with Apia which was a reasonable policy and price until I realised there was no coverage for loss of rent for any incident occurring between leases......including a gap of 1 day. So if house guttered by fire or a tree falls on it on the day between leases and takes 12 months to be tenantable again - you are up the creek, no income. Think of how often this may occur when you are uninsured!!!!! This is common with the vast majority of policies, some give no coverage, others give limited coverage - ie a lease has been signed but not started, the best you can hope for is a grace period between tenancy. Most people are not aware of this, and a gap in coverage I overlooked until reviewing my policy last year - despite reading over it in detail a couple of times before I took it out!

Most people on this forum are probably not covered based on who they say they are insured with. :eek:
 
I am with terri Scheer but I also looked at EBM as they seem to have proper Landlord Insurance which covers loss of rent as well as accidental and malicious damage. These two companies compared well but I went down to the excess I would have to pay.

Be careful lots of insurane companies call it Landlord Insurance because you are a landlord but doesn't cover what you need. I have been caught before.
 
Hi all,

I can comment on EBM as I just had a claim approved through them via the REA.

As far as I'm aware, everything went well except they required a further invoice breakdown for works carried out on the property due to damage. The claim took about one month to process which I think is reasonable and I'm happy with the payout figure.

Insurance companies all claim to be good but it's only when you want to claim their true colours show.
 
Landlords Insurance

Hi I am also looking to see who people are using for Queensland we have just had our renewal for our insurance has gone up approx $600 for the year. We have RACV for Victoria, and use NRMA and StGeorge ( Westpac) for NSW. Good price and good cover not that we have had to use them.

Thanks
 
For what its worth, I have just interviewed 4 Property Managers in Perth and three of them all recommended Terri Sheer and EBM as the best landlord insurers to go with. Not sure if they get kickbacks for signing you up with these guys, but it would certainly be in their interest having you signed up to someone good and comprehensive, as it is often the PM who is dealing with insurance claims etc (though this doesn't say anything about which insurer is the best priced).

I am about to assign someone myself and will probably go with Terri Sheer based on frequency of recommendations on SS.
 
Not all insurance is the same, why not insure with a company that covers what you want rather than what people recommend. Neither of your recommendations met my needs, but everyone has slightly different needs!

Only then decide which of those from your short list you will go with based on recommendations - which might eliminate one or all based on service etc. I have gone with a company that covers closest to what I want at a reasonable price, but is not at the top of my preferred insurers for service. A compromise, but better to get coverage and very average service than no coverage at all!! But most people could not be bothered reading the policy coverage and just rely on recommendation to save them doing it .....and then complain to ACA or Today Tonight when they are not covered for XYZ who are happy to run a rip off story on someone being hard done, ignoring the facts. :)
 
Anybody who has used Terry Sheer and put in a claim?

Yup, some one drove through the front fence of my IP which had to be replaced.

Terry S asked for the details, got me to fill in some forms, required a builders quote for the fence and paid reasonably promptly. Total amount was around $2500.

So far I am happy with them and would recomend them but curious to see if there are better insurers.
 
I'd start by looking a the building insurer. Having land lords insurance with the same mob prevents any issues of two different insurers arguing over who's responsible for certain repairs.
 
FYI we just did the numbers comparing Terri Scheer with EBM.

Both are very good compared with the AAMI et all.

Both include the CRUCIAL RULE of allowing bond to be used for cleaning up and locks, which is very important as others like AAMi do not allow this and put your bond towards unpaid rent first leaving you to pay cleanup.

I.E. Say tenants defaults, gets evicted, leaves it a pig sty, does not hand back keys. You spend $500 cleaning up and $400 carpet cleaning and change locks say $250 , well that is NOT covered by many insurers. AND they do not let you use the bond to cover it. They claim bond as first 4 weeks default. With EBM and TS it is.

However I found two differences between EBM and TS is Terri Scheer in:

Evicting a tenant by court order (which is the common way eviction occur in my experience).

EBM allows 6 weeks tenants defaults (walking out, absconding, notification to vacate AND court order)

TS allows up to 6 weeks as well for the above but up to 15 weeks for court ordered eviction.

I raise this as in my three evictions, was the method used because bad tenants use the law to stay as long as possible and it can easily take 15 weeks to get to court order process.

ALSO minot but notable.

EBM allows an additional $250 towards keys in the event of a Court Eviction only.

TS allows $250 towards keys in the event the tenants leaves and does not return the keys in any case.



To me this two items justified the $150 per annum extra cover with TS as typical rent is $300 a week so a potential up to 9 weeks is $2700.

LASTLY

IMO always use an agent property manager.

My agent confirmed the above. He also said that is why when he go to court he ensures there is eviction notice to ensure the 15 weeks applies. ;) He does not allow the judge to accept keys back on the day and a mutual ending of the lease. A landlord self managing may miss this crucial fact, to their up to $2700 cost.

Regards Peter 14.7

PPS IMO do not cheap insure unless you have tenant who will never go bad like family, close friend, etc and even then, consider issues like death, injury, damage making it untenable.
 
I'd start by looking a the building insurer. Having land lords insurance with the same mob prevents any issues of two different insurers arguing over who's responsible for certain repairs.

I considered this and even though it cost more when all in one insurer. Having one for tenant and one for building only invites a gap in cover IMO.

Peter 14.7
 
I've just received a policy renewal with Suncorp - two 1940 houses insured for $367,500 and $315,000, $1000 excess, $20M legal liability. Premium jumped from $1480 last year to $1968 this year (about 30% increase? - but my maths is not very good :p).

I called EBM and Terri Scheer. EBM policy was $1400 for ONE house and Terri Scheer was cheaper, but still more than the $1968 with Suncorp.

I've just called Honan and they will insure them for $798 and $705, $100 excess, $20M legal liability.

With good, long term and trouble free tenants I'm quite happy to take the risk that I may be taking (but I will certainly read the policy before switching, especially reading some of the traps in previous posts).
 
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