In New Zealand? Visit quarter.nz for body corporates.
Building insurance is compulsory for a body corporate 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.
Queensland bodies corporate must insure the building for full replacement value and hold public liability cover, and the state has the hardest strata insurance market in the country. North Queensland premiums in cyclone-exposed areas have risen to the point where the excess, the mitigation record and the resilience measures a building can demonstrate matter as much as the sum insured.
Governed by the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997, administered by the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management.
Queensland policies commonly carry separate, much larger excesses for cyclone and water damage. That is where the real exposure sits.
In Quarter: Put the agreement in your documents register and ask the Manager to summarise it — when it expires, how much notice it needs, what leaving early costs, and what they have to hand back. It reads the forty pages so the committee does not have to, and will turn the answer into a task with a date on it.
Queensland build costs have risen sharply, and regional construction costs more than the south-east.
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.
Roof condition, seals, drainage, and any cyclone mitigation work. In the north this changes the price you are offered.
The north Queensland market is thin. Late enquiries get fewer options and worse terms.
And to a general meeting where the premium exceeds them.
In Quarter: Committee roles and who holds them are recorded against the building, so notices, voting rights and permissions follow the position rather than one person's inbox.
With premiums at these levels, owners will ask. Have the answer recorded.
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.
A cheaper premium with a much larger cyclone excess is not cheaper — it is a different risk allocation.
In north Queensland the building that can evidence its maintenance and mitigation gets a materially better outcome than the one that cannot.
Fewer insurers write north Queensland strata. Time is your only leverage.
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 Queensland, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in Queensland and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
