Unit Owners Contents Insurance

It doesn’t matter whether you own your home or you are renting it. Your home is special. It is worth protecting.

Whilst your Body Corporate, Owners Corporation or Strata Plan Insurance Policy will provide cover for the Building and Common Property, as the owner or occupier of the premise, you can be responsible within your unit. You can protect your unit with a Home Insurance policy for Unit Owners.

Home Insurance can protect you from the financial cost of replacing the contents of your unit if they are damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen. A Unit Owners Contents Insurance policy also provides you with legal protection as the owner or occupier of a unit through Personal Liability Insurance.

Did you know?

Who is it for?

There are policies to suit almost anyone in any circumstance
- Contents and Mortgage Protection cover for Unit Owners
- Renters Contents and Personal Liability Insurance
- Unit owners that lease their property for short term rentals like Stayz or Air BnB.

I don’t own much or I rent and my contents aren’t worth insuring.

Home Contents covers more than just your clothes or personal belongings. Each policy is different, so it is worth checking the definition of contents to know what you are and are not covering. Some policies will include cover for carpets, curtains, blinds, fixtures and fittings in addition to your belongings.

More importantly, when you take contents cover, your policy should also include Personal Liability Insurance cover. This is cover for you as the occupant of the home incase you cause damage to the property of others or injury to someone as a result of your occupancy of the home. This is very important cover if you rent somebody else’s home.

What cover is included?

All home insurance policies in Australia have a minimum that they must cover you for as set out in the insurance contracts act 1984, and the Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017. This however only sets out the minimum that must be covered.

Your basic standard policy from most insurers should include Fire, Storm, Lightning, Earthquake, Burglary, bursting or water pipes, malicious damage, impact from vehicles, impact from space debris, impact by falling tree.

There is a wide range of insurance policies available and even though they are all ‘Home Contents’ policies; very few policies cover the same events for the same amounts. There are restrictions when it comes to the amount covered on some benefits like Water Damage or discovery costs to locate the source of a leak, whether fusion to your fridge and A/C unit is covered or the loss of food following a blackout. It is in these finer details that can really make a difference to your claim.

If you have an existing quote or an existing policy and you would like us to prepare for you a cover comparison so that you can clearly see the differences in cover between that policy and up to three others, we can provide this to you even if the other quote or other policy is not through us.

Why would I arrange my insurance with you?

We work for you. Not the insurer. We are there to negotiate on cover and premiums at the time of placement, we’re there to help if you need to change the policy during the year because circumstances have changes, and, more importantly, we are there to help you if you have a claim.

We are Corporate Authorised Representatives of Oracle Group (Australia), which is part of Australasia’s largest general insurance broker network, the Steadfast Group. We leverage Steadfast’s scale to ensure our clients have access to a wide range of insurance companies, a broad range of products, exclusive policy options, and of course, competitive pricing. And when the time comes and you need to make a claim, you will have the backing of Steadfast behind you.

What this means for you is that we are able to source insurance policies that you cannot get directly with some insurers. Through the combined buying power of all Steadfast members, we can access policies which may have better cover and in many cases, cheaper cover, than if you went direct to that insurer.

On the top level Accidental Damage policy, our clients often receive:

• Automatic cover for contents away from the home

• Automatic cover for Jewellery and other Valuables up to $10,000 or $15,000 per item without the need to specify the individual items. Did you know that most direct insurer policies require you to specify items that are over $1,000.

• Environmental Upgrade cover to improve the star rating of damaged appliances that you need to replace with a more efficient model.

• Catastrophe Cover to increase your sum insured automatically if there is a declared natural disaster, this can increase the amount you have to rebuild your home by up to 30%.

There are different levels of cover, such as defined events or basic covers which may not include these benefits.

What isn’t covered?

Each policy is different, so you will need to check your specific policy disclosure statement (PDS) to confirm exactly what is and is not covered on your policy. We can help you find this information if you find it confusing or aren’t sure where to find it.

Generally most policies will exclude cover:

• if the unit has been continuously unoccupied for more than a set period of time. This is 90 days for most policies. - We do have access to policies for Holiday Homes that may be unoccupied for longer periods. Click here for more information on Holiday Homes.

• for damage that is caused by rust, corrosion, gradual deterioration, wear and tear.

• for damage that is caused by rats, mice, termites or insects

• if your home is under construction or is partially complete.

• if you are renovating your home and the value of the renovations exceeds a specified amount. The amount will vary from policy to policy. If you plan to renovate your home, you must tell your insurer or us as your broker.

• for the first 48 hours or some policies up to 72 hours of your policy if you do not have an existing policy that is being transferred over for damage by fire, storm, earthquake and flood. In some cases insurers also put embargoes in place that prevent new policies or changes to existing policies for postcodes under threat of natural disaster.

What are my payment options?

Some of the insurers we deal with will offer you the ability to make your payment by the month at no extra cost. Some will allow you to pay monthly with an extra cost or interest charged on the payments. Whilst other insurers we work with only offer annual payment options. These are all annual policies that are for an annual term but only provide you with different payment options.

Regardless of what the insurer offers, we are able to help you if the payment terms they offer you don’t fit your budget or plan.

We can arrange for your premium to be funded through an external provider, such as Attvest Premium Funding, Premium Funding Limited, BOQ Premium Funding or Elantis Premium Funding so that you can have the choice of Half Yearly payments, Quarterly Payments, Monthly, Fortnightly or even Weekly payments. Please let us know your preferred payment frequency.

I’m not sure what i need, can you help?

Of course. We’re here to help. You can call us on 02 4322 7856 or email our office and we will be happy to help you.