What Insurance & Which Company?

[PC]

AMI with all the landlord extensions.
About $650pa for 100m2 3brm houses in Auckland.

Two small claims in the last 10yrs - kitchen fire, smashed ranch slider.
All fixed promptly.
Nice to have a local office and to actually get a person when called.

[RentMaster]

I suggest shopping around for insurance - prices vary quite a bit. As PC said, house insurance with landlord extensions should cover it.

I also have quite a few properties with AMI.

[Green Fish]

Insurance

The primary issue is the solvency of the insurer. The policy wording is secondary, obviously.

Shop around, but only shop at the big shops.

[donna]

These guys for rentals - ProSure ask for Karel Polman.

Cheers,

Donna

[sparxNZ]

kiwibank

Whatever you do, don't use Kiwibank!
I have just been through the process of raising finance with them for a property, they're great with the finance part - efficient and timely.
On the insurance they dropped the ball big time, I sent them a truckload of information regarding the property weeks in advance including a building report and ON SETTLEMENT DAY they were emailing and phoning me for more details and authority for a direct debit.
I was two days late on settlement as a result, what a nightmare!
Thank goodness the vendors were reasonable and very keen to get the sale over and done with, they did not pursue penalty interest.

I have used AMI before also and found them to be very good, I will be calling in an AMI assessor when I visit the property to renovate it next week and switching to them pronto!

[action]

AMI will cover glass breakage on a rental property, with no cost to you, and it doesnt go on record.
helen

[SmallBrain]

My 2 rentals and PPOR are all insured with AMI, and my cars too for many years. Happy with them and not a single issue with making claims so far.

Can't comment on price as I've been using them for many years and have not checked others.

[Rolf]

These guys for rentals - ProSure ask for Karel Polman.

Cheers,

Donna

Had this one in the past for one rental and it was way overpriced and a total nightmare once I had a claim...
The claim was for a small fire which would have been covered by a basic house insurance anyway.
It was very uncoordinated and took ages for their builders to do the repairs, and they left a big mess which I ordered them to come back and clean up (which they did fortunately).
Finally, when the policy later came up for renewal the premium was over $900/yr!

This prompted me to shop around for the best value for money and I instead insured all rentals with AMI last year - just basic house cover with no landlord features for approx $300/yr per house.

IMHO forget all about landlord insurance and just choose your tenants carefully, as you would anyway.

[k1w1]

Although AMI cover my own house, they don't cover my rentals. I find them.....ok.....but insuring my works of art was a hassle.

They didn't seem to want to accept the independent valuations I had. They also have a problem, it seems, if you don't meet the so-called norm of art value versus total insured value. By that I mean, if you have say, $100K of art, then they would expect you to have total contents of several multiples of that. I suppose other companies follow similar actuarial guidelines, though.

Now, when can I come off Double Secret Probation, Greg Marmalard? Last time I asked nicely, I was rudely told to shut up - no more correspondance will be entered into. Do you moderators walk around with your hands on your ears saying "AARRRRRGGHGGGGGHHHHHHH" just to make sure you can't hear any reasonable requests? Why is it you don't want to discuss the matter like rational adults? Are you 13yo?

[SmallBrain]

I think the lost of rent cover is worthwhile in case the rental is say burnt down and can't be let for a period of time, the rent would then be covered allowing you to keep the mortgage payments.

[Rolf]

Another problem with that kind of policies is that most often there are quite strict requirements on your end in order to actually be covered in the event of a claim. For example to carry out inspections of a certain standard at certain intervals etc. Something which I won't do unless I feel it's necessary, in which case I would put another tenant in place anyway.
If you have one single property then it might be worthwhile, but once you've got a larger portfolio you're pretty much self-insured just from the annual savings of not having landlord cover.

[yesindeed]

Rental Property Insurance Companies

Hi, I have just bought my first rental property so learning the ropes.

Could you please recommend a good insurance company to cover the tenancy aspects (malicious damage, loss of rent etc) for an Auckland property.

Thanks!

[BusyLizzy]

http://www.propertytalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20889

http://www.propertytalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7296

I'm sure there have been other discussions, but those are two that I found quickly.

Some other general first-timer hints can be found here:

http://www.propertytalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21586

[bling]

I have found rentsure is a good one. They cover for loss of rent if the tenancy is terminated (via trib) and malious damage cover is quite good too. It is under written by NZI and they are very easy to deal with. They are in the book or on the web. I have only had to claim couple of times in the last 10 or so years but I had no problems very striaght forward.

[wunwinglo]

Has anyone heard of or used Tenancy practice service for landlord insurance? my PM has just sent me a brochure about their 'Property Manager Max' & 'Property Pro' policies.