If you own a Serviced Apartment, then you need insurance for your unit or apartment which covers short term holiday rentals or stays.
Have you decided to rent it out and you are using an onsite manager to take bookings and care for your unit as a serviced apartment? Then you need a landlords insurance policy which covers you for short term rental stays and your insurance company needs to be aware that it is a serviced apartment.
What does Serviced Apartment mean?
Serviced Apartments are usually furnished apartments or units rented out for short-term stays where the owner pays a manager to clean the apartment and manage the bookings for the holiday rentals.
Serviced apartments will be fully furnished with linen and cooking utensils supplied. Holiday makers do not have to supply linen and have all the benefits of services like cleaning, booking office or reception, included in the cost of the Serviced apartment booking.
Similar to a motel room except you have the benefits of an apartment and can do your own cooking and you have more room. They are great for families. Serviced apartments may be serviced weekly or daily and there would usually be a cost to this included in the booking. You may have the option to have the unit cleaned for the duration of your stay or at the end of your booking.
As an owner of the service apartment you have the benefit of regular cleaning and the manager taking away the stress or time involved in managing the apartment bookings, cleaning and even mamaging the maintentance depending on what you have agreed with the manager.
Why won’t my insurance company insure Serviced Apartments?
Many insurance companies will not insure serviced apartments. This may because they are concerned by the extra risk imposed by having a third party clean your apartment or other reasons.
The insurer may or may not be happy to insure your property for short term holidays, but once you mention that it is a serviced apartment, they may decline to insure you.
If you have run into this problem, we may be able to help you with insurance for your serviced apartment or unit with a specialist landlords’ policy which caters for serviced apartments. You can generally insure your Contents, Loss of rent and Landlords Public liability which protects you if a tenant is injured and you are found legally liable for some unexpected reason.
Do you want to know if your Insurance covers your Serviced Apartment for short-term holiday tenants?
Then,
1. At the very least you must inform your insurance company and get confirmation that they will cover your Service apartment for the short term holiday rentals.
2. Check that they will cover periods when your property is unoccupied between holiday rentals.
3. Will they cover you if you manage it yourself or do you have to use an agent.
4. When it is unoccupied what cover will they provide. Will it be full cover or restricted cover or no cover at all?
5. Do not just assume you are covered you must check!
6. Do you really want to take the risk of being uninsured because you did not check with your current insurer? Or not be insured because you did not advise your new insurer when taking out the policy that it was going to be let as a Serviced Apartment for short term rentals.
So, call you insurance company or insurance broker to check today!
How can we help with your Serviced Apartment Insurance?
We can assist you with a wide range of holiday apartment & serviced apartment Insurance with cover for damage to your contents and owner’s fixtures and fittings caused by fire, storm, and other listed perils. You can include policy options such as accidental damage, landlord’s public liability, landlords’ contents, loss of rent, malicious damage, and tenant damage for instance. Please note we generally cannot help if the Apartment or Unit is sub-let or on a multi-lease agreement.
Generally, the building is covered by the Strata policy or Apartment insurance. However, if your lender requires mortgagee building insurance then we can assist here as well.
Conditions apply to all policies. Please view the Landlords Product Disclosure Statement which we will send with your quote.
Alternatively call Insure More @ on 02 6555 5022 and we will help explain the options or you can complete one of our online forms here to request a Serviced Apartment Insurance quote or visit our Serviced Apartment & Unit Insurance page to find out more.