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Hi, our block of 11 units had action brought against us and against the strata manager for an alleged slip and fall by one of our tenants. The funny (or not so funny) thing is that on the day the alleged event occurred we saw the tenant walk out of the property not limping in anyway despite him claiming that earlier in the day he had fallen over on common property. Anyway he is claiming a million dollars for his suffering which our strata insurer is handling for us after having charged us a $250.00 excess. Our strata manager is also being sued for negligence in not warning him that he could slip (honestly?) but their indemnity insurer has a $20,000.00 excess. As the lawyer for the strata manager has already used up $20,000.00 worth of fees, this has been billed to the strata manager. The strata manager has in return charged the owners corp the $20,000.00 excess which we are now raising a special levy to pay. Now, we don’t begrudge the strata manager for passing this on as it is stated in their agreement and it is unfair for the manager to have to wear the cost, however we felt the strata insurer should have met the cost as part of their policy. The strata insurer has declined to wear this cost and we are now $20,000.00 out of pocket.
Has anyone been through this? Are their strata insurers out there who do cover for this sort of excess situation?, or is it just bad luck to us.
The worst part, is that it appears that the case may be settled by an offer made to the tenant. Why don’t these things get defended anymore? Is it because of prohibitive legal costs. It would be nice to be able to counter claim against the tenant but I am sure he has no assets.
Cheers
Mike
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Hi “Mike”
I notice your email contact address is the office of a strata management firm, which makes me wonder why you are coming to a public forum for advice.
Even so, here it is – this is an insurance issue, not a strata issue and if you have problems with it you should take it up with the the insurance ombudsman.
We have no idea of the detail of your strata management contract (if, indeed, it exists) or the insurance coverage (ditto) so it would be wrong for us to comment.
Maybe you should ask one of your fellow strata managers for advice.
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.
Pay a private investigator to tail the tenant and take some high definition videos to prove that the claim is spurious and/or fraudulent. Photos are not enough. A $1K private investigation fee beats a $20K excess fee.
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