The property insurance sector has endured consecutive years of unprecedent events that have affected overall profitability.
The challenges that presented themselves with COVID including labour shortages and increasing costs of materials have been exacerbated by unprecedented weather related catastrophe events all over the globe. Closer to home, the east coast of Australia has seen it’s third consecutive year of La Nina activity, not only resulting in devastating floods but also ongoing storm and heavy rain activity.
The most effective lever CHU has against continued pressure on premiums is the policy excess. Therefore in order to combat claims inflation pressures and continuing rising reinsurance cost we have reviewed the excess structure for CHU Residential Strata Insurance and Commercial Strata Insurance Plans.
For all policy renewals with a renewal date of 27th January 2023 or after, the standard policy excess for all claims will apply as follows:
- For policies with a building sum insured > $2M – $2,000 all claims excess
- For policies with a building sum insured > $50M – $5,000 all claims excess
For existing policies with a building sum insured < $2M, the standard all claims excess of $1,000 will remain.
The above excess structure represents the standard excess application and is of course subject to ongoing underwriter review and change based on claims performance, etc.
Strata policy owners may choose to buy down to a lower excess which will result in a premium increase (subject to underwriting). Alternatively, they may wish to increase the excess to determine what effect this may have on the overall premium. You can make this change online 24/7 through StrataTech or through a change request to CHU underwriting.
