Building insurance is compulsory for a body corporate everywhere in Australia and New Zealand, and almost every building holds a policy. Far fewer can tell you when the sum insured was last checked against a real valuation, what the excess is, or what the policy does not cover. Construction costs have moved sharply since 2020 and many policies have not moved with them. That gap is not discovered at renewal — it is discovered at the claim.
New Zealand body corporates must insure the building for full replacement value, and New Zealand has a particular history here: the move from open-ended replacement cover to sum-insured policies after the Canterbury earthquakes means the number on your schedule is the number you get. Earthquake, and increasingly flood, exposure make that figure — and how recently it was calculated — the most consequential detail in the whole policy.
Governed by the Unit Titles Act 2010, administered by Unit Titles Services.
Under a sum-insured policy this is the ceiling on any claim. An old figure is a real, quantified exposure.
In Quarter: Upload the policy and Quarter reads the insurer, policy number, dates, premium and broker straight off it, then puts the renewal on the calendar far enough ahead that you can go to market rather than accept a rollover.
Including demolition, professional fees, code compliance and escalation over the rebuild period.
In Quarter: Quotes, studies, assessments and correspondence attach to the decision that authorised them, so the file an assessor, an owner or a buyer's solicitor asks for is already assembled.
The statutory natural hazard cover is capped per unit; the private policy covers above and beyond it. Know where the line is before a claim.
A building's seismic rating affects both premium and insurability, and it belongs in the long-term maintenance plan as well as the insurance file.
Minuted, with the alternatives, and distributed to owners.
Pre-settlement disclosure needs it, usually at short notice.
In Quarter: Pre-contract and pre-settlement disclosure are compiled from the records you already hold — levy status, rules, insurance, the maintenance plan and the fund balance — rather than assembled by hand each time somebody sells.
Under sum-insured policies this is not a technicality — it is the cap on your recovery.
It is capped per unit and it will not cover a large building's shortfall.
A sale can stall on this, and it reflects on the body corporate rather than on the seller.
The premium is one of the largest single lines in most buildings' budgets, and it is the one most often accepted without a question. Two questions — is the sum insured right, and what are we actually covered for — change the answer more than shopping around does.
A renewal handled well takes an hour and saves years of exposure. Quarter is what makes that hour possible.
Certificate of currency, schedule, valuation and claims history in one place, current, and visible to owners rather than sitting in a broker's inbox.
Diarised well before the date, so the building goes to market rather than accepting a rollover three days out.
Building details, claims history, maintenance records and the valuation date, ready to hand over instead of reconstructed each year.
When it was done, when it is next due, and what the sum insured is against it.
Which policy, at what excess, on whose recommendation, minuted — so next year's committee knows why, and so does an owner who asks.
General information about New Zealand, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with Unit Titles Services or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in New Zealand and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
