After reading all those horror stories about Terri Scheer, it seems that most of the insurance (damage etc) is next to useless. The only one that people are able to reliably claim is the lost rent. To be honest I wouldn't expect any better from any other companies. I guess they're all equally slimey.
So I wonder - are there any companies that offer lost rent as a stand alone product? If this is the only one companies will reliably pay out then why not cut the crap.
I'm more than happy to take complete exception to this generalised statement. Insurance isn't perfect, and I certainly can't speak for Terri Scheer but happy to speak generally regarding the industry. With our product RentCover for example there has been over $14,000,000 paid out in claims in the last 12 months alone, and I can assure you there is a lot more paid than rent loss. In all insurance there are no doubt stories of claims where people feel hard done by, and in some cases they may be correct, but a very large percentage are simply because people have unreal expectations of what should be covered, and certainly plenty of cases of outright attempted fraud.
The reality is that the insurance industry is one of the most regulated of any industry in Australia, there are watchdogs at every corner and there is a very formulated complaints process should someone believe they have not been paid correctly. This process ends up with decisions made independently of both the Insured and the Insurer.
Unfortunately people generally only talk about the bad stories, and rarely recount the good ones, I can assure you there are far more satisfied claims than ones that are a problem, but people don't jump up and down saying how great it was whereas they will shout loudly and talk about problems.
Another reality is that if everything everyone would like to be covered by insurance was included, the premiums would simply be unaffordable, and no-one would take it out, completely defeating the purpose. It is simply about choosing the risks that you wish to take and those you don't wish to, and ensure you are insured against those, if they are in fact insurable risks.
To answer your question, I am not aware of a product that will only cover loss of rent, one major flaw with that concept is that a lot of rent loss payments are dependent upon whether it is a damage claim or not, so the two remain largely reliant upon each other in many cases. Loss of rent is not only for tenants defaulting or breaking leases but for the loss of rent whilst insured damage is being repaired for example.
Also of critical importance is the liability component, fly without that at your absolute peril.
In general terms the insurance industry is one that continually cops a bagging despite being so heavily regulated to do the right thing. Every time I see this I am reminded of a statement that I had seen before and have just dug up from the website of the Chartered Insurance Institute which reads:
"Imagine a world without insurance. No shipping and travel, no construction, no factories and offices, no doctors or other professional consultants, no motoring - potentially even no home ownership. Insurance exists because people need security. Without insurance there would be far less risk-taking. And without any risk-taking there would be no businesses and no innovation. Put simply, insurance is what enables the modern world to get on with life."
