Insurance rocketing – as is strata manager’s commission

I own a unit within a small complex of 19 located in the inner west of Sydney.  It’s a complex with no lift, pool or gym.  Two of our biggest ticket items are strata management fees and our insurance renewal.  In 2010 we did some major works within the complex, however subsequent years only minor works have been completed but the costs have stayed high.  After reviewing the balance sheet for items that could be contributing to the continual rising cost it seems our Insurance renewal was $6,935 in 2011 and by 2012 was $8,682 resulting in an increase of $1,747 in 1 year.  To add insult our strata agent commission was $1,127. On questioning our strata manager at the AGM his response was it’s because of the floods in QLD and all insurance companies have increased their levies.  

I have tried to source independent quotes, however with the amount of questions required to be answered from the age of the property, previous claims by residents etc it really needs to be answered by a strata agent who has the transparency of this information. The problem is their is a HUGE conflict of interest with large commissions being paid to managing agent which result in no insurance renewal choices for the client.

For the last 5 years we have used insurance brokers with various insurer providers in the first 2 years. However, in 2010 a major insurer price matched to receive our business but have increased premiums every year since. 

Would anybody have any suggestions on alternative cost effective solutions to offer our owners corporation a choice of insurance providers?  and preferably with an option to pay quarterly/twice yearly in-line with our levy cycle.