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Building insurance is compulsory for a owners corporation everywhere in Australia and New Zealand, and almost every building holds a policy. Far fewer can tell you when the sum insured was last checked against a real valuation, what the excess is, or what the policy does not cover. Construction costs have moved sharply since 2020 and many policies have not moved with them. That gap is not discovered at renewal — it is discovered at the claim.
New South Wales sets out the insurance obligation directly: an owners corporation must hold building insurance and public liability cover of at least $10 million, and it must insure for full replacement. The 2025 reforms also gave Fair Trading stronger enforcement powers over insurance and maintenance obligations, and brought in mandatory training for strata committees — both of which make an undocumented renewal harder to defend than it used to be.
Governed by the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, administered by NSW Fair Trading.
Not the certificate of currency — the schedule, with the sum insured, the excess and the exclusions on it. Then find when the valuation behind it was done.
In Quarter: Quotes, studies, assessments and correspondence attach to the decision that authorised them, so the file an assessor, an owner or a buyer's solicitor asks for is already assembled.
This is the whole exercise. Everything else is negotiation around a number that is either right or is not.
In Quarter: Upload the policy and Quarter reads the insurer, policy number, dates, premium and broker straight off it, then puts the renewal on the calendar far enough ahead that you can go to market rather than accept a rollover.
You are entitled to it, and it changes how you read the recommendation.
In Quarter: Pre-contract and pre-settlement disclosure are compiled from the records you already hold — levy status, rules, insurance, the maintenance plan and the fund balance — rather than assembled by hand each time somebody sells.
Strata insurance is a slow market. Three days before expiry there is one option, and it is the rollover.
Policy, sum insured, excess and why. With mandatory committee training now in place, a recorded decision is the expected standard.
In Quarter: The ownership register, financial records, insurance, contracts and documents sit in one searchable place, so a handover is an export rather than an archaeology project — and they are still there when the committee turns over.
The whole problem is that this task arrives as a surprise every year.
In Quarter: Book the year's meetings once — the AGM and the committee meetings around it — and Quarter carries the notice periods, the agendas and the invitations from there. The insurance renewal and the plan review sit on the same calendar, so the year is visible rather than remembered.
A default annual increase is not a valuation, and after 2020 it is very often well short.
Ten million is a floor, not a target. Larger schemes frequently need more.
The cheapest way to overpay for insurance is to run out of time to look at alternatives.
The premium is one of the largest single lines in most buildings' budgets, and it is the one most often accepted without a question. Two questions — is the sum insured right, and what are we actually covered for — change the answer more than shopping around does.
A renewal handled well takes an hour and saves years of exposure. Quarter is what makes that hour possible.
Certificate of currency, schedule, valuation and claims history in one place, current, and visible to owners rather than sitting in a broker's inbox.
Diarised well before the date, so the building goes to market rather than accepting a rollover three days out.
Building details, claims history, maintenance records and the valuation date, ready to hand over instead of reconstructed each year.
When it was done, when it is next due, and what the sum insured is against it.
Which policy, at what excess, on whose recommendation, minuted — so next year's committee knows why, and so does an owner who asks.
General information about New South Wales, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with NSW Fair Trading or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in New South Wales and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
