Recommend Building Insurance

[lovestruck]

Hey everyone,

Just discovered these forums and they seem lovely and very informative. Just wondering which companies you guys use for building insurance for a house in QLD. I am currently paying about 800 per annum for a combined building and landlord cover which seems quite cheap, but I was concerned about the quality of the policy and the company not paying claims etc. I logged on to the productreview.com website and it only received 1.3/5 as a rating (although the highest rating was 2/5).

What sort of experiences have you guys had with building insurance companies?

 

[TheLake]

I would like to know too! Especially claims handling. That's where you find out how good a company is or not.

 

[Perp]

Cannex compares insurance policies and issues them a star rating:

http://www.canstar.com.au/home-and-contents-insurance/

The Financial Ombudsman service publishes tables each year showing the likelihood that a dispute will come to the Ombudsman from each insurer, and how they're resolved:

http://fos.org.au/comparativetables/2012-2013/

(Sort by "chance of dispute".)

 

[brettc]

Cannex compares insurance policies and issues them a star rating:

http://www.canstar.com.au/home-and-contents-insurance/

Bear in mind these ratings are in regard to Home & Contents insurance and not landlord insurance.

Landlord insurance is a very specialist area, or at least should be, and certainly was before every Tom, Dick and Harry insurer decided to get involved by releasing dressed up household policies. Unfortunately there are now a lot of non-specialist policies out there that are sadly lacking on many of the fundamentals that are needed by landlords.

 

[Perp]

Bear in mind these ratings are in regard to Home & Contents insurance and not landlord insurance.

Agreed, but the OP asked specifically about "building insurance", so I answered accordingly.

 

[Burramys]

The insurance websites are unhelpful. I waded though one, ticked the IP box and got to the end and was advised ... they do not cover IPs. Other websites are a bit vague on the wording, like "renting" - does that mean I'm renting to someone or from someone? Small faded text does not assist.

There will be no contents apart from the carpet, drapes, whitegoods, etc, but they may be considered part of the building. Most screens do not clarify this point The IP in question is in Victoria, house, so I could combine property, contents and LL insurance. Other IPs are with EBM, and I have had Scheer for LL insurance, both good. Any advice would be valued. Thanks

 

[DizzyStuff]

I've got two policies with NRMA and one with EBM.

I'm starting to convert all my policies to EBM as NRMA have been cranking up the premiums lately. The EBM rates are a lot more competitive for my area and some of the excess conditions are also better.

Having said that NRMA were really good when I had to make a claim for a break in at our PPOR. Payout was fast and not much hassle.

 

[Bantam Roosta]

It's really hard to know until you need to make a claim. Over the years I've been with many different insurers for different products, but the only insurer I have had to claim against was CommInsure (twice for contents) and they were fantastic both times. One of the claims was very difficult to prove any form of ownership, but I was able to scrape together enough tidbits for them to accept the claim.

BR

 

[lovestruck]

Yeah, I guess that's why it's often difficult to make a decision besides basing it on the terms and conditions of what's covered and what isn't without experiences in claiming. I have decided to go with OnePath with properties in the 200k range. Their yearly premium is in the 800 dollar range and this is both building and landlord insurance in one combined policy.

 

[NicW]

Building AND landlord insurance

I am currently looking to change insurance also.

Anyone have AAMI Landlord and Building with the recent policy changes - i suggest read the changes, as carpet, curtains etc are not covered on the new policy they offer for the same name! Up until now we have had AAMI for car, PPR house and contents, investment building and landlord. Every year the prices for all these have gone heaps higher. Enough now with the more $ for less cover.

I am comparing Westpac building and landlord (which is about the same price as AAMI, but at least not AAMI) and Terri Scheer. Terri Scheer is about $200 cheaper however a couple things stood out from reading too many PDS documents:

- if a water pipe in the wall leaks, your not covered for the water damage? Does this sound odd?

- retaining walls and fences damaged by ground movement not covered - sounds easy for the insurance not to cover and retaining wall then!

I appreciate any comments on the good/bad etc for insuring an investment house and its dishwasher, carpet, floating timber floor etc.

thanks.