Be careful about changing insurance providers without first checking the product disclosure documents, and the schedules of your Plan’s current policy against those of/in the competitive quotes that your Strata Manager has now obtained.
There are quite a few optional covers offered by strata insurance providers, and additionally different degrees of cover and monetary benefits within each of those; so be careful with gross premium comparisons and with breaking what may be a good relationship with your Plan’s long-term insurer.
In response to your questions:
a) Generally, any refund is made pro-rata on the premium only less the insurer’s administration fee (for processing the cancellation), as most government charges are not refundable by the Agency’s to whom they’re paid.
b) Strata Managers (SM) also have a “relationship” with insurance providers (i.e. in addition to the financial ones that they declare in Agency Agreements), including with the Assessors that they deal with on your Plan’s behalf in order to expedite claims/payments, to obtain advice, to obtain certificates etc. So I don’t believe that a SM’s desire to maintain an established relationship of that type could be considered unreasonable, or not in your Plan’s interests, particularly as the S/M did obtain additional (and maybe more competitive quotes) from other Insurers when your O/C so requested.
So in conclusion, I rang our Plan’s insurer prior to my putting together the 2012/13 budgets for our recent AGM, and they advised me of an estimated 15% increase 3 months down the track when our renewal’s due! So take a close look at the Policies and the relationships of both your Plan (claims history) and your S/M before making a move, and ask each of the providers about future premium increases.