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My recent experience may inform The Hood as to his next steps.
Ask the managing agent and committee for copies of ALL correspondence relating to insurance matters, say for the last 2 or 3 years. This should include
(1) emails to/from the managing agent and insurer;
(2) emails to/from committee members and the insurer;
(3) emails to/from managing agent and committee member; and
(4) records of phone calls of the agent and committee members with the insurer (and what was agreed/discussed).
It should not take long to discover the real reason coverage was denied. IMHO, coverage is declined because of something the committee or agent (on behalf of the OC) did or did not do. The records, if made available should answer this question.
I think the reason is not that relevant as the question is what happens when the OC can’t get insurance
However, it is ironic that strata schemes are legally obliged to have insurance but insurance companies are not obliged to provide cover at any cost. That’s something Fair Trading could have a look at … just as soon as they appoint their next training wheels minister.
Exactly right with the irony of it all. And I believe Victor is back for another stint of being ineffective.
The agent says:
The main reasoning from the insurers has been ‘ due to construction of the building and the high bush fire exposure’.
Neither can be corrected. The SP is in a bush land setting and the buildings are what they are, i.e. multi-storey sawment construction (a mixture of sand, sawdust and cement in timber framing).
I somewhat like the idea of can’t insure as the building are hardly used, cost way to much to insure and represent bad decision making in the past. The main building (the Hall) was commenced in the early 1990s and still only has interim approval after the local Council had the embarrassment of giving the Hall an annual $2000 donation as part of its public hall funding program when the Hall was still a building site and not available to the broader public due to the then terms of the SSMA which made leases ans licences not available to the broader community.
It seems some of the many defective strata buildings in Sydney might soon run into the can’t insure issue so perhaps while the ‘Strata Act’ review is still under way the boffins down in Macquarie St might like to consider what to do.