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Rooming house insurance is for owners and operators who let rooms individually, in a shared house, a converted dwelling or student units. Fewer insurers accept this risk than accept an ordinary rental, and those that do will ask whether the property is registered with the local council and how many residents live there. Fortis Risk Solutions goes to the insurers that write rooming houses and compares how each treats resident damage, vacancy and lost rent. Where the owner and operator are different people, we check both are protected. If a fire or a resident causes damage, we help you lodge the claim. Have the room count ready. Call 03 7046 3766 or send an enquiry.
What Rooming House Insurance Covers
Rooming house insurance covers the building, the furniture and shared facilities, the rent and the owner's legal liability for a property where rooms are let to separate residents who share kitchens or bathrooms. It suits rooming houses, boarding houses and student accommodation. An insurer sees this as a different risk from a house let to one household, and the policy is written for it.
More residents means more ways for something to go wrong. A heater or a cooking fire in one room spreads to the corridor. A resident damages doors and walls during a dispute. A visitor falls on a poorly lit stair. A burst pipe in a shared bathroom closes three rooms for a month, and the rent from those rooms stops while the trades do the work.
In Victoria, rooming house operators need a licence through Consumer Affairs Victoria, and the property must meet minimum standards for rooms, facilities and safety. Building regulations also set stricter fire safety requirements than for a family home. An insurer will usually ask about these before it quotes. Residents and their visitors can bring injury claims, so public liability insurance is a core section.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges rooming house insurance Victoria-wide from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn. It is part of our business insurance range. We look at the number of rooms, who manages the property, the fire safety systems and whether the building is a converted house or purpose built, then approach the insurers that write this class.
Who this covers
Businesses in this group include:
- Rooming house operators
- Student accommodation providers
- Purpose built student accommodation owners
- Boarding houses
- Shared housing landlords
If your business is not listed, ask us. The sections below are the starting point for any business in the group.
Rooming House Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Related Client Case Studies
Cases from the Fortis Risk Solutions broking team. Client names have been removed.
Client case: Tenant Injured at the Rental Property
The client situation: A tenant was walking down the property’s external stairs when a defective handrail gave way, causing the tenant to fall and sustain an injury. The tenant subsequently made a claim against the landlord, alleging the property had not been adequately maintained.
How the policy may respond: Where the landlord was found legally liable for the tenant’s injury, the Legal Liability section of the Landlord policy may help cover eligible compensation and legal defence costs.
How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: An ordinary home policy may not cover liability to a tenant. We make sure a rental is on landlord wording from the day it is let.
Client case: Tenant Defaults on Rent
The client situation: A tenant experienced financial difficulties after losing their job and stopped paying rent. The tenant remained at the property while the landlord followed the required process to regain possession, resulting in several weeks of unpaid rent and lost rental income.
How the policy responded: Where Rent Default or Loss of Rent cover was included, the Landlord Insurance policy helped reimburse the landlord for eligible rental income lost during the covered period.
How Fortis Risk Solutions helps: Rent default cover has conditions about notices and timing. We explain them at the start and help the owner gather what the insurer needs.
Every policy is different and the outcome of a claim depends on its terms. As your broker, Fortis Risk Solutions compares insurers and policy wording before you buy, and lodges and manages the claim for you when something happens. Talk to us about your own cover.
Rooming House Insurance FAQs
Often not. Most landlord insurance is written for one household on a residential lease. Many wordings exclude or limit rooming houses, boarding houses and properties let room by room. Check the wording and declare the use. If the insurer learns at claim time that the property is let to several unrelated residents, it may have grounds to reduce or decline the claim.
It can. An insurer prices the policy on the basis that the property is operated lawfully and kept to the required standards. Tell us about the licence status and any compliance notices before we quote. Keep licence details, fire safety records and maintenance logs in one place. They help at renewal, and they help again if a claim is assessed.
Yes, when the room cannot be used because of insured damage such as fire or a burst pipe, and the policy includes loss of rent insurance. It pays the rent you would have collected for an agreed indemnity period. Empty rooms for other reasons, such as low demand at the end of semester, are not an insured loss.
A house let room by room to students is insured the same way as any rooming house. Student accommodation insurance for a purpose built building is usually arranged as commercial property insurance. That building, with its plant and common areas, looks more like an apartment block than a house. Providers who run the building as a business with staff and services add business interruption insurance for the trading income.
No. The owner's policy covers the owner's building and contents, not the residents' own property. Residents should arrange their own contents cover. The public liability section can respond if a resident's belongings are damaged through the owner's negligence, for example a wiring fault you were told about and did not fix. It does not pay for theft between residents.
Rooming houses are a specialist class, and wordings differ on resident damage, vacancy, fire safety conditions and how rent is calculated. FRS helps you disclose the property and its management accurately, structure limits for the building, contents and rent, compare specialist insurers and act as your advocate at claim time. Operators with several houses can ask about holding them under one business insurance program.
Talk to a broker about Rooming House Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about rooming house insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.