For a bit of comic [or tragic] relief from the stresses of the 2024 Strata Insurance Crisis here’s an equally crazy, sad and illogical story about the insurance dilemmas faced by a strata owner in his inner city Melbourne highrise strata building.
As @LiamWalsh and @AFR report in the Article 32nd Storey Deemed ‘Flood Risk’ in Insurance Farce Virgin Money Insurance [and Auto & General] refused to renew his contents insurance because of the flood risk to the building.
That’s despite the strata owners apartment being on the level 32, not having any ground level storage and there not being any flooding in the strata building before even though it is close to the Yarra River.
Apparently the insurers ground level flood mapping identified the strata building as within a risk area but without national property databases linking individual apartments levels it could not differentiate the risks for level 32.
It’s crazy. But it also highlights another serious trend in strata and other property insurance coverage often called ‘de-insuring’ where insurers are reducing where they offer insurance coverage citing risks of flooding, other catastrophes and weather related events.
The owner eventually secured insurance elsewhere.
You can read the full article here.