What is strata insurance?
Strata insurance is a special type of property insurance designed for strata schemes such as apartment complexes, townhouse groups and sets of units. It covers all the common areas of a strata property, as well as the fabric of the building itself from the basement to the roof.
What does strata insurance cover?
The below diagram shows what is covered and what is not covered by residential strata insurance:
Strata insurance covers the building and common property around the building. The cover normally extends as far as the fences and driveways and includes separate buildings such as garages plus movable items like gardening equipment. To be included, the common areas and contents need to be defined in the title for the property.
Almost always, the property's body corporate (owners corporation) is responsible for taking out strata insurance over its common assets. These can include:
- Walls
- Roofs, guttering and roof terraces
- Balconies and windows
- Plumbing and wiring
- Floor and ceiling structures
- Stairwells and lifts
- Cellars and basements
- Communal laundries
- Managers' offices and concierge areas
- Water and sewerage connections
- Electrical sub-stations
- Entrance lobbies
- Common gardens
- Communal gyms and swimming pools
- Fences
- Carparks or carports.
Strata insurance also provides cover for liability for personal injury or damage to other people's property that happens on common areas.
What types of property can get strata insurance?
Any property that is on a strata title can take out strata insurance. Often these are apartment complexes and small groups of units, but they can also include non-freehold townhouses, duplexes and homes with shared walls, low-rise boutique apartments, and eco-villages.
What's not included in strata cover?
Personal items inside the apartment, such as furniture and household appliances are not covered by residential strata insurance, these would need to be covered by a contents or landlord insurance policy.
What is strata building insurance?
What is strata title insurance?
Optional extras
Unless already required by state law, it is possible to add on to standard strata coverage by including optional extras such as cover for volunteer workers, catastrophe cover, machinery and motor breakdown, office bearer liability, audit fees and owners' improvements.
Flex Insurance specialises in strata insurance. We can offer standard policies that include only the mandatory cover that your state/territory strata law requires, or, using our expert underwriting knowledge, put together a policy that's tailored specifically to the needs of your property and the wishes of the strata owners. We also offer all inclusive cover, which includes all state/territory mandatory covers plus all optional inclusions for comprehensive cover.