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Building insurance is compulsory for a strata company 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.
A Western Australian strata company must insure the buildings on the scheme for their full replacement value and hold public liability cover, and the 2020 reforms tightened what the strata company has to be able to show about how it is discharging its duties. WA's newer apartment stock helps on premium, but the same valuation problem applies: a sum insured indexed forward from a pre-2020 figure is unlikely to be adequate today.
Governed by the Strata Titles Act 1985, administered by Landgate.
The starting point everywhere, and the answer is usually older than the committee expects.
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.
Perth construction costs have risen materially. An indexed figure is a guess.
The plan describes the building's condition and the insurer prices it. They should not tell different stories.
In Quarter: Upload the plan you already have and Quarter reads it into a costed schedule of items, lifecycles and due years. From there it projects the fund thirty years out and tells you the annual contribution that actually funds it.
Sixty days. It is the cheapest thing you can do to improve the outcome.
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.
The council of owners' authority to contract should be clear before the renewal date, not negotiated on it.
Policy, sum insured, excess, and why.
Common, and materially short.
If the plan says the roof is failing and the proposal says the building is well maintained, one of them is a problem at claim time.
Renewals get delayed while the council works out whether it can sign.
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 Western Australia, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with Landgate or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in Western Australia and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
