More and more Australians prefer strata living, allowing them to own their personal living spaces and share ownership of the building's common areas. It's a great way to live in a neighbourhood while still maintaining personal boundaries. Besides having a natural sense of community, it's also a great way to cut down utility expenses.
Like any purchased property, buying a strata will require protection through insurance. Unfortunately, sharing ownership of a property can be tricky to implement. This is why it's vital to determine how your residential strata title insurance affects the different aspects of your real estate.
Understanding Residential Strata Title Insurance
A strata-titled property is divided among its residents in terms of ownership. This can apply to a wider range of residential real estate. While individual areas are owned by the occupying residents, all signed residents collectively own common grounds. These can be communal pools, gardens, and even lounge areas.
Living in a strata automatically makes you part of the homeowners' community. This essentially gives you a voice on protecting different aspects of common grounds in the area. As a paying resident, you need to assess if the fees you're paying for contributes to an effective premium that benefits you and everyone in the community.
Before paying your monthly dues, here are four things that should be covered by your strata title insurance:
1. Liabilities
Injuries can occur from work-related accidents inside the property, primarily from contractual workers like plumbers and electricians. If people are injured around common areas, strata insurance covers these voluntary workers' injuries compensation. This is an essential benefit to residents benefiting from different utilities on common grounds.
Other than paying for medical bills, strata insurance also covers potential workers' compensation that contractors may hold owners liable for. Depending on your coverage's limitations, part of workers' compensation may be paid for through this premium.
2. Building Maintenance
Besides the common grounds of a strata, strata title insurance also covers maintenance work for different building areas like fences, car parks, and similar components. Since these parts can degrade due to environmental damage or technical complications, repairs are naturally needed. With the right strata insurance, maintenance for these common contents is assured and covered.
3. Catastrophes
Properties are naturally insured under property damage from technical concerns or even vandalism. However, this basic premium doesn't cover situations like catastrophes. Catastrophe insurance is protection against major natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes.
Besides disturbances from nature, catastrophe insurance can also cover human-made calamities like riots or terrorist attacks. Since these are low-probability-high-cost events, they're not typically included in standard homeowners insurance. Thankfully, strata insurance also protects your building and residents from construction repairs for these situations.
4. Fidelity Guarantees
Potential disputes with your landlord can get messy, especially over claims of theft, embezzlement, or fraud. For this reason, residents need to invest in protection for their sake. With strata insurance, you can recover loss of funds if your property owner is implicated in the mentioned offenses and similar actions like it.
Conclusion
All residents share payment for residential strata insurance as part of their rental fees. For this reason, it's important to look for a premium that effectively covers the items above. Since every property is different, it's crucial to seek the right insurance provider that fits your and your community's needs.
At New Wave Insurance, we've helped thousands of clients to get the right protection for their assets. We can serve insurance premiums of various types and scopes from business insurance to cyber insurance premiums! If you're looking for strata insurance in the Gold Coast, call us for a complimentary quote today!