You don't just own a building. You own the rent it earns, and the risk that comes with it.

Quick answerA properly built commercial landlord policy covers the building at full replacement cost, the rental income (including recoverable outgoings) for an indemnity period long enough to survive a real rebuild, and your own property owners liability at $20 million. Around those sit glass, machinery breakdown for the plant that is yours under the lease, and flood as a deliberate location-by-location decision.

The building. Full replacement cost, not market value, with the sum insured set by a desktop building replacement valuation rather than a guess. The cover itself is standard commercial building insurance; what changes for a landlord is everything below. See Commercial Building Insurance and Desktop Building Replacement Valuation, which we commission at no cost to you.

The income: loss of rent. The question we ask is precise, and it is worth quoting because most brokers do not ask it: "What is your annual rent, excluding GST and including outgoings like water, rates and insurance?" Ask a landlord just "what's your annual rent" and the answer is often wrong, because gross and net leases blur the line between rent and outgoings. If your lease lets you recover rates, land tax or insurance from the tenant, that money stops with the rent, and it belongs in the loss-of-rent sum. Then the period: our default is 18 months, we recommend 24 wherever we can, and 12 is a floor we place only on a client's express instruction, because the price difference from 12 is usually immaterial and the rebuild timeline is not: make-safe, assessment, design and approvals, tender, 12 to 18 months of construction, then re-letting.

What we won't sell you: rent default. Loss of rent covers rent lost to an insured event. Cover for a tenant who simply stops paying is a different product, called rent default, and for commercial landlords we do not recommend it. It is only available on CGU's Padlock policy, we have never seen a claim paid on it, and the better business-pack wordings do not offer it at all. A broker should also tell you what is not worth your money.

The liability: property owners liability. Your tenant's liability policy protects your tenant. If someone is injured because of the building itself, a lawyer will do a title search, find the owner, and serve you too. That is why the owner carries their own property owners liability cover, and why we benchmark it at $20 million. The full explanation is on Property Owners Liability.

Vacancy. On the business-pack wordings we place, the standard vacancy clock is 90 days, and the test is generally whether 50 per cent or more of the building is sitting empty, so a multi-tenancy building kept more than half occupied is usually not treated as vacant. The obligation is simple: tell your insurer as soon as you know a tenancy is ending.

Glass and machinery. Who insures what follows the lease, not ownership instinct. The classic trap is air conditioning: the lease makes the tenant responsible for servicing and repairs, so landlords assume the whole unit is the tenant's problem, but capital items are the landlord's. A failed compressor is your bill, and it needs Equipment Breakdown Insurance to be covered.

Flood and cyclone. A deliberate, location-specific decision, never an assumption. Flood is usually a named peril with its own sub-limit and excess, and both numbers are worth reading rather than assuming: a sub-limit set below what a real flood would cost the building leaves the gap with you, and the excess is what you carry before the policy responds.

Quick answerWe measure the building instead of guessing, we ask the rent question precisely enough to get the right loss-of-rent figure, we check the roof from the air every year, and we tell you honestly which insurers pay claims well and which discounts are not worth it. The whole review is risk advice and education, not a paperwork audit.

• The desktop valuation, commissioned. A registered valuer's desktop assessment on every commercial building, at new business and every renewal, commissioned at no cost to you, for our purposes as your broker, to inform the advice we give you. Not "I'm not a valuer". See Desktop Building Replacement Valuation.
• The right rent figure. "Annual rent, excluding GST, including outgoings" is the question that gets your loss-of-rent sum right the first time.
• The roof, checked. More than 1,200 aerial roof condition checks a year across our clients, reviewed alongside the valuation, because the roof is where landlord claims get argued. See Roof Condition Monitoring.
• Straight talk on insurers. We favour insurers who pay claims properly, and we only suggest moving you to a cheaper one when it is a lot cheaper. Even then, we tell you plainly if that insurer's claims service is weaker, so the saving is your informed choice, not a surprise at claim time. We back this up when it matters; our team handled our clients' claims on the ground through the March 2026 Bundaberg flood.
• The liability education. Especially for owners who assume the tenant's policy or a strata policy covers them. It does not, and we would rather you heard that from us than from a lawyer's letter.

Quick answerThe expensive landlord mistakes are quiet ones: skipping machinery breakdown because the lease mentions the air conditioning, a sum insured nobody re-measured, no property owners liability because the tenant "has insurance", and loss of rent that is missing, short, or excludes the outgoings you actually lose.

1. Skipping machinery breakdown on capital items. The lease makes the tenant service and repair the air conditioning, so you assume the unit is their problem. Capital failure is yours. Consequence: a dead compressor with no cover behind it. The mechanics live on Equipment Breakdown Insurance.
2. A building sum insured that was never re-measured. In our experience, 40 to 50 per cent under-insured is common after 7 to 10 years without a revaluation. Consequence: a scaled-down partial claim, or a total-loss shortfall that is yours.
3. Assuming the tenant's insurance covers you. Consequence: the lawyer title-searches, finds the owner, and serves you, and the tenant's insurer owes you nothing. See Property Owners Liability.
4. Assuming a five-year lease means loss of rent is unnecessary. If the building burns down, the tenant stops paying rent. The lease does not survive the building.
5. A loss-of-rent sum that excludes recoverable outgoings. You get paid the net rent while still carrying the rates, insurance and water you used to recover.
6. An indemnity period too short for a real rebuild. Twelve months of cover against an 18 to 24 month timeline means the rent stops before the building is back.
7. Not telling the insurer about a vacancy. The 90-day clock, and the 50-per-cent-vacant test, run whether or not you thought to call.
8. The wrong entity named on the policy. The insured has to own the building; if your structure has changed, the policy has to change with it. The structure conversation lives at For Commercial Property Owners.

We have handled both endings of the loss-of-rent story. One client's loss of rent claim paid about $92,000 after we argued a short-stay letting entitlement the insurer first questioned. Another client's cover paid exactly as designed for around 18 months, then the limit ran out about a week before a new tenant was found. How long is long enough? Both claims, told properly.

The renewal habit that prevents most of this list is asking two questions every year: will my insurance actually replace my property, and will I get loss of rent for long enough to protect my livelihood?