Property and Real Estate Insurance

No. Damage to a managed property, rent default and tenant damage all sit with the owner's landlord or strata policy. The manager's professional indemnity answers a claim that the manager's failure caused or worsened the loss. Owners should hold landlord insurance in their own name, and a good manager checks a certificate is on file for every property on the rent roll.

The project while it is being built, under a contract works policy that covers the works, the materials and the site liability; the completed building until it is sold or let, under a property owner policy with loss of rent, the owner's form of business interruption insurance; and the development entity itself, under management liability for the directors. Who arranges the construction cover is set by the building contract, and we read it before the first pour.

Not usually. Theft by a staff member is a fidelity or employee dishonesty question, which sits in a crime or management liability section. Money paid away after a settlement or rent email was intercepted and altered is a cyber insurance question. Both have to be arranged deliberately, because conveyancing and rent payment emails are a standing target for criminals.

Smaller holdings sit under commercial property owner insurance, one policy per building or a schedule of sites. Larger portfolios move to an industrial special risks wording that covers damage from any cause not excluded across every declared site, with loss of rent built in. Tenant occupancy drives the rating, so a change of tenant has to be reported before renewal, not after a claim.

A property business carries three kinds of risk at once, and no single policy covers them. FRS helps you separate what you own, what you manage and what you advise on, structure limits against the rent roll and the portfolio, compare insurers who write agency and property risk and act as your advocate at claim time. We also review the licence requirement for professional indemnity each renewal.