Question: Can strata lot owners communicate directly with the strata insurer to request to review all insurance claims and payments?
Can owners of a strata property request directly from the Strata Insurer to review all claims and payments? I believe you can submit a claim but our request to view all activity directly has been refused. As paying owners I would have thought this would be possible?
Answer: Generally, the insured is the Owners Corporation not the individual lot owners.
Generally, the insured is the Owners Corporation. It’s the Owners Corporation that will have that relationship with the insurer directly. However, everything has to be kept on record, so this particular owner can actually conduct a search of the books and records where everything needs to be made available by the secretary or the Strata Managing Agent (if there’s an agent involved), and that information includes the claims history.
You could write to your Strata Managing Agent or your committee seeking a copy of the claims history. If they refuse to provide it to you then you should ask if a claims history is on record. If there is one on record, then you should book in a search to the books and records, and the claims history should then be made available along with all other records relevant to your scheme.
If there isn’t a claims history on record, as an owner, you are entitled to view it so I would be asking the strata committee to uplift a claims history from the broker or insurer direct, place it on file if they’re refusing to provide it to you and do a search to the books and records. Again, the Owners Corporation should not be refusing access to this information. As a lot owner, you contribute to the annual premiums. You are an interested, insured party being an owner of the Owners Corporation. So I will definitely be seeking that claims history and they should not be refusing it.
This post appears in the December 2021 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Leanne Habib Premium Strata E: info@premiumstrata.com.au P: 02 9281 6440