Understanding Our New Suncorp Strata Insurance PDS

Extra Support (new section in your PDS)

Sometimes your circumstances might mean you need additional support or assistance in dealing with us. If you are comfortable, you can tell us about your situation, and we will work with you to arrange support.

Your responsibilities

Several changes have been made to the ‘Your responsibilities’ section.  For example, to boost transparency, the reference to ‘take all reasonable care’ to prevent theft, loss, damage or legal liability has been replaced with ‘take steps’. Ensuring there are working smoke detectors in the building is given as an example of a step you can take.

When you need to contact us

Additional situations for when you must contact Suncorp have been included in the PDS. For example, you must tell us as soon as possible if:

• you have had another insurer cancel or decline an insurance policy, impose specific conditions on a policy or refuse a claim;
• you start farming, manufacturing or repair work at or from the insured address;
• the insured address ceases to be at least 50% occupied.

Excesses that apply to your claim

We have removed any requirement for you to pay your excess upfront when a claim is lodged. 

Storm Surge

We have created a standalone “storm surge” insured incident to increase transparency, for loss or damage caused by storm surge that happens at the same time as other insured damage caused by storm.

Fire (including bushfire)

We have added further clarity for what is covered in the event of a fire, including cover for certain extra costs in the event of a bushfire.

General Exclusions are now called ‘Things we don’t cover’.

Things we don’t cover include some new and updated exclusions such as:

• Building or common contents not in good condition
• Deliberate or reckless actions
• Not complying with building laws or regulations
• Communicable disease
• Illegal drugs or other chemical or poisonous substance

We have removed the concept of ‘Additional features’ and have combined all additional covers and additional features to be ‘additional covers’ under ‘Additional covers that come with your policy’.

Loss of rent following an insured incident - exclusion

We have added a specific exclusion to clarify that we will not cover loss of rent following an insured incident for any units which are used for any short-term rental, holiday letting or house sharing arrangement (including an arrangement booked through any online booking platform), such as Airbnb or Stayz.

Temporary accommodation for unit owners

Only a monetary limit applies now, not a time limit.

Embezzlement of funds

We have removed the reference to providing accounting records ‘to our satisfaction’ and included examples of the records that you might need to provide to prove your loss.

Office bearer’s liability

We have updated the language to make this additional cover clearer.

Lifetime guarantee on building repairs

We have removed our guarantee on the quality of materials– we continue to offer a guarantee on the quality of workmanship for repair or rebuilding work to the building that we authorise, arrange and pay the builder or repairer directly for.

Our right to recover from those who are responsible

To promote transparency, we have added examples of the assistance that may be required from you if we take action against a party for the recovery of your loss.

How we settle building claims

We’ve made a range of changes to this section to better explain how we will settle your claim, including for example, that we will aim to use a member of our supplier network to repair or rebuild your building. If you do not accept our offer to repair or rebuild, your claim will be cash settled. This amount will be based on the assessed quote amount for a member of our builder supplier network to repair or rebuild on a ‘new for old’ basis.

Alternatively, if a member of our supplier network is unable to complete the repair or rebuild, we will ask you to engage a builder to provide a scope of works and provide a quote on the cost to repair or rebuild on a ‘new for old’ basis. Following an assessment process, if that quote is appropriate and reasonable, we will pay you the assessed amount.

Refer to the PDS for more details.

Joint policyholders

During the period of insurance, we might ask all joint policyholders first before we action a request or direction in relation to your policy (e.g. before we cancel your policy, reduce your cover or remove another policyholder). This way we can help protect the interests of all policyholders.

New section - Conduct of others

When we consider a claim, we will have regard to prejudice suffered by you due to conduct of others and may meet the claim when we are not legally required to do so.

Removed - Cancellation fee

If you decide to cancel your insurance cover with Suncorp, you will no longer be charged a cancellation fee.