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Most readers here will know the Owners Corporation is required to have the building valued for Insurance at least once every 5 years in NSW.
At the last AGM Owners voted for a new valuation.
Later , with no notice given nor permission sought of Owners nor even of Executive Committee members , our Strata Manager disclosed the amount of money the building was insured for to the new chosen Valuer.
This is ridiculous , because Valuer can then use that amount and simply increase it by some amount they think relevant and present that as current value , without having done a thorough assessment to determine true value.
We could have simply left the standard + 5% per annum increase for the current year’s Insurance renewal that the Insurance Broker had applied.
After complaint to Strata Manager he informed us that this is Standard Procedure – disclosing the current Insured Value to Valuers – and he and the Management Company will not accept liability for acting contrary to the interests of the Owners Corporation.
He said all Insurance Valuers request that information , but so far as we know the Valuer did not request it but was simply given it at the time they were engaged to do the valuation.
What use is a Valuation that is an estimate based on a a previous value that is simply an accumulation of + 5% every year , and that since apparently a similar estimate done previously ?
Actual increases of costs of materials and construction do not average out at 5% per annum , thus our building could be substantially over-insured or under-insured by now after years of the above , and I’ll guess at under-insured.
Please , any readers here with knowledge and/or experience of building insurance , is this statement by Strata Manager of “Standard Procedure” actually correct for NSW ?
… and , are there any Valuers in Sydney who will take on a Residential Strata request and do a thorough assessment of the true value with regard to replacement costs based on current market prices , and who do not cheat by using some-one else’s guesstimated value ?