First-Time Block Owner, Regional NSW

A property owner in regional NSW phoned us in a hurry. Their direct insurer - one of the mainstream major insurers - had told them they would not be renewing the policy because the building wasn't strata, and they only wrote strata or single-dwelling landlord risks.

The owner had been carrying the property with four separate landlord policies - one per unit - since purchasing it. Each policy was on a different renewal date. When the first of the four came up for renewal, the insurer had reviewed the title structure, realised the whole block was on one title with no body corporate, and declined to continue.

This is a common structural mistake with first-time block owners. The block isn't strata, so strata cover doesn't apply. But it's also not a normal single-dwelling landlord risk - it's a multi-unit residential block on a single title. It needs a block of units policy, not four individual landlord policies stapled together.

The first thing we did was explain why the existing structure was wrong. Four separate landlord policies on a single-title block leaves several real risks uncovered:

• Building structure - individual landlord policies usually exclude whole-building structural cover
• Common areas - stairwells, driveways, shared roof and walls sat between policies with nobody fully responsible
• Public liability - fragmented across four policies instead of one unified $20M limit
• Claims coordination - a single storm event would have created four separate claims on four different renewal cycles

We consolidated the cover into a single block of units policy and approached the markets we use for regional NSW non-strata blocks. Two declined to quote, one quoted on the higher end, and one came back with a mid-range premium that fit the risk.

The biggest challenge wasn't technical - it was timing and expectation. The existing landlord policy had a hard non-renewal date. The other three policies still had months to run. The client wanted to put everything on one policy, aligned to one date, without double-paying during the transition.

We worked out a transition plan: bind the new block of units policy from the non-renewal date, let the other three policies run to their natural renewal, and then cancel and consolidate at each milestone. Not elegant, but it meant no double-payment and no gaps in cover.

The second challenge was price. First-time block owners coming off four cheap individual landlord policies often get sticker shock when they see a proper block of units premium. We explained what they were actually buying: full structural cover, unified $20M liability, common area cover, coordinated claims process. It's a different product - priced accordingly.

CHU Underwriting provided terms that fit the block's profile. Premium sat in the mid four-figure range for the full building - covering all four units, common areas, public liability, and loss of rent under a single schedule.

This is one of the most common issues we see with first-time block owners: they buy the property, they get four landlord quotes online, they stitch them together, and they don't realise the structure is wrong until a direct insurer tells them.

If you've just bought a block and you're not sure whether your existing landlord cover actually works for multi-unit non-strata properties, have us look at it. A 10-minute conversation can save you a messy claim later.