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I am an ‘approved occupant’ in a rental unit, within a complex of 8 units. Our landlord owns the unit I live in and my housemate is the lease holder, renting the unit via an agency. The complex has a body corporate and strata rates are paid by the landlord/unit owners.
Recently I crashed my car into the large sliding electric gate to the complex whilst parking, damaging the gate beyond repair (note: this happened at night. The gate has no reflectors on it, which a gate repair company has advised are required and the delay which should keep the gate open for 60+ seconds is broken; therefore the gate closes only a few seconds after fully opening – had the gate been open for the 60+ seconds it would have still been open when I repositioned my car and therefore impossible to hit).
When our rental agency manager reported the accident to the body corporate their response was “you broke it, you fix it” and have suggested I claim on my personal car insurance. The issue here is that I only have ‘3rd party property cover’ and my car insurers are saying this excludes property under my ‘care or custody’, i.e. the gate where I live.
I have been advised by a member of a body corporate elsewhere, that because this is classed as damage to ‘common property’ that the body corporate should be able to file a claim with their own insurers. I of course would be more than happy to pay the claim excess as I am not trying to shirk responsibility of what happened, but feel that the body corporate must have insurance for accidents like this happening?
Does anyone know if the Body Corporate actually are able to claim on their insurance for this and if so, whether I am within my rights to suggest/request that they do this?
Any guidance or advice would be welcome – the cost of the gate to replace has been quoted to me as around $4’000, a significant amount if neither my car insurers or body corporate’s insurers will approve a claim.
Many thanks in advance!
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Even if the Strata insurance agrees to accept the claim, it can still come back to you to recoup those costs if it determines you were at fault.
There is another course of action (or inaction) available to you – and I’m not recommending this, just laying it out for your consideration.
You could write to the strata manager or committee and say that since the gate was not operating correctly (the 60-second delay) and was not properly dressed with reflective surfaces, you are not prepared to accept total responsibility for the accident.
In fact, you see their failure to fulfil their statutory duty to maintain and repair common property as being the major contributing factor in this and, as such, they should make a claim against their own building insurance.
However, you are happy to sit down and mediate an equitable outcome, at a mutually agreed time and with an independent arbiter.
Something like that may cool their jets a little and give you time to work something out. Paying the excess on their claim may be a fair result. Oh, and have a look at changing your car insurance – the one you have is clearly not helpful.
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.
The issue here is that I only have ‘3rd party property cover’ and my car insurers are saying this excludes property under my ‘care or custody’, i.e. the gate where I live
Can you tell us what insurance company that is? I’ve had a look at a few and it seems they usually cover rented premises where you are not responsible for building insurance.
Youi (below) is an example but it’s similar for others:
“We will not pay for any loss, damage or legal liability caused directly or indirectly:
…
by the car to property owned by or in the legal care of your household members, drivers listed on your policy schedule, or any person covered by your policy except where the property is a building that you are renting with a written rental agreement in place and you are not responsible for insuring the building;”I am an ‘approved occupant’ in a rental unit
Are they perhaps claiming that you don’t have a “written rental agreement” ?
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