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Topic
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We own a villa north of Brisbane which we rent out and which has a common wall with another villa. There are only two villas in the Strata.
Before our next door neighbour sold out last year we organised building insurance for the two villas and our then neighbour would reimbursed us back 50%.
We have been advised by a reliable third party that out new neighbour has organised their own insurance for their half of the building (they have not contacted us since they moved in).
We now need to organise insurance again on the two properties. Do we take out insurance on the two villas and ask our neighbour to reimburse us back or
organise insurance for our half.
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Talk to your insurance company about whether it is even possible to have discrete insurance policies. If so it’s probably better to go it alone.
If there must be a combined policy then get your neighbour to advise the insurance company of their details.
For various reasons some people are not able to be covered by insurance; e.g. if they’ve been investigated for a fraud offence in the previous five years. Plus a host of other reasons.
You do not want to find out there are problems when making a claim.
It sounds like you have an inactive OC. Maybe activate it, nominate yourself as chief cook and bottle washer, and ask the other owner to join you on the committee. If they refuse then run it yourself while keeping copious notes and always ensuring the other owner is fully apprised of what’s happening.
Let the other owner know their responsibilities in paying combined bills, especially insurance.
Finally, good luck.
From reading this factsheet, it seems there is no provision for separate insurance unless the two units have separate walls (and these don’t).
See if you can get your insurance attached to the neighbour’s, otherwise you can organise insurance for the whole scheme and they will have to pay half.
It could be that these neighbours don’t even realise they have collective responsibilities as part of a strata scheme. Invite them round for a cup of tea and explain how things work (and ask them what they want to do).
It occurs to me that their insurers shouldn’t have given them separate insurance in the first place, so they could be due a refund. In fact, if the insurance has been offered on the basis that it’s a separate dwelling, it may be invalid anyway, so they could be wasting their money.
In any case, you and they might do well to read this factsheet and, if they refuse to discuss it with you, this section of the Act.
But before you get to that, have a friendly chat and explain that you have to have insurence for the whole block (that’s the law) and your options would be to share a policy with their insurer or they could pay their share of yours, whichever offers the best deal.
But whatever you do, keep it friendly as these people will be living close to you for a long time.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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