Declined for Mixed-Use Property Insurance? Here's Why, and What Happens Next

Almost every mixed-use decline traces back to one of a few things: the residential share of the building is above the insurer's cut-off, the tenant downstairs cooks, the building is heritage-listed or old and unrewired, the title holds two separate buildings, the commercial tenancy is vacant, or the submission didn't give the underwriter what they needed. Each of those is one insurer's rule. The building is the same building at the next market.

More than you would expect. Most of the mixed-use buildings we placed in the past year had been declined five or more times before they reached us. Appetite for this class is case by case: each underwriter weighs the tenants, the location, the construction, the documents presented and the valuation differently, so the same building can sit inside one market's appetite and outside the next. That's the reason a specialist broker exists for this class: the markets that write it are specialist agencies that only deal through brokers, and knowing which one fits which building is the job.

Usually, yes. A non-renewal is likely one insurer leaving a class or a region, or reacting to a claim. It has to be disclosed, and it narrows the field, but it rarely closes it. Send us the non-renewal notice, the schedule and any claims detail and we'll map the markets that still want the building.

Not directly. You generally need to disclose them, and underwriters do read them, but what sets the terms is the building and the market it goes to. The right response is to stop collecting declines from insurers that were never going to write the building and take it to a market that wants it, presented the way that market needs to see it.

Because it isn't a mixed-use risk in the way insurers define it. A mixed-use policy is written for one building under one roof with commercial below and residential above. A commercial building and a separate house on the same land, however close together, is usually written as an Industrial Special Risks (ISR) placement. Different product, different markets, and it is placeable.

It's usually fine. We tell the underwriter the tenancy is vacant, and when it's leased we update them with the tenant. That's straightforward unless the incoming tenant changes the risk, say an office becomes a tobacconist or a takeaway with deep fryers. That doesn't mean a decline, but the tenant matters and the policy needs to be endorsed. Underwriters look at the space itself too: if a commercial kitchen is already fitted, we approach the markets that would consider a kitchen tenant even while it's vacant, so they know what to expect.

With all the information in hand, we can do it in as little as 24 hours. Usually it's 48 to 72 hours depending on complexity and which markets are involved, and heritage or hospitality buildings can take longer because specialist underwriters assess them individually. The two things that make it fast are having every detail ready and being available to answer underwriter questions quickly. If you have a settlement, refinance or expiry date, tell us the date first. See cover before settlement or refinance.