Commercial strata insurance for your building.

It depends on the plan the scheme is registered on. A building format plan defines the scheme by the floors, walls and ceilings of a building, and most multi-tenanted commercial buildings are on one. A commercial lot in a mixed-use tower is often on a volumetric format plan instead. On either, the body corporate must insure the scheme's building for full replacement value. That is the cost to rebuild it new, debris removal and professional fees included.

On a standard format plan, a building that shares a common wall with a building on the next lot is the body corporate's to insure. Where the scheme is a single scheme, not one of a layered set, and the buildings are detached, the body corporate does not have to insure them. In practice that building falls to its lot owner.

In every scheme, the body corporate must insure the common property and its own assets. Where it must insure a building, the law also requires an independent replacement-value valuation at least every five years. Whatever the plan format, its public liability insurance over the common property and its own assets must be at least $10 million for a single event.

In Queensland the scheme's policy is also called commercial body corporate insurance. The building it must insure leaves out carpet, curtains and blinds, temporary floor, wall and ceiling coverings, and air conditioning units serving a single lot. It also leaves out fixtures a tenant can remove at the end of a lease. None of it is the scheme's to insure, and nothing legally requires a lot owner to insure it either.

Other states set their own rules. In New South Wales, for example, the owners corporation must insure the building, whatever way the scheme was subdivided. For the rest, see what the law requires of a commercial building owner.

If you own a whole building on one title instead, start with commercial property insurance.

If the scheme's sum insured falls short, the owners pay the difference. On other building policies, a short figure can also reduce a partial claim; underinsurance in commercial buildings shows how. Commercial schemes are usually run by a professional strata manager. If you are not on the committee, ask the manager for the schedule and the date of the last valuation. Together they show what the scheme is insured for and when the figure was last checked. Our underinsurance risk checker gives a first read on whether that figure may be short.

On the wordings we place, a partial loss is not scaled down by an average formula. The danger of a short figure is that it runs out before the rebuild is finished. Demolition, debris removal and professional fees come out of that same sum insured, so the figure has to include them. If it is not enough, the body corporate funds the difference through extra contributions, a special levy or borrowing. Every lot shares it, in proportion to its lot entitlement (the share of scheme costs set against each lot).

Indexing the figure between valuations only moves a number that may already be short. Our guide to construction cost increases shows how far building costs have moved. We recently reviewed a valuation that had omitted GST, leaving the replacement figure about $250,000 short. The valuation existed. The number was still wrong.

Catastrophe cover, the optional top-up for rebuilding costs that jump after a declared disaster, is no substitute for an adequate sum insured. On most of those wordings it pays nothing until the building sum insured has been spent. On one, it pays nothing at all unless that sum insured was at least 80 per cent of the rebuild cost just before the event.

On the wordings we place, the scheme's policy covers the building and common property for sudden and accidental damage that is not otherwise excluded.

Public liability over the common property is a section of its own on each of those wordings. Office bearers liability protects the committee against claims brought against it. The claim generally needs to be first made during the policy period, and the question on changing insurer below covers the timing. Government audit cover pays the professional costs of responding to a government audit of the scheme. On some wordings it is a section of its own, and elsewhere it sits inside the committee's liability cover.

Machinery breakdown cover pays for a covered breakdown of the scheme's insured plant. It is optional on some wordings, and one leaves lifts out of it. Fidelity cover pays if the scheme's money is stolen or misappropriated. Most offer fidelity cover; others offer a narrower theft-of-funds benefit.

Some covers are options, and others sit within another section. We read the schedule and policy wording together to check what the scheme has and the limits that apply.

A rise reaches each owner through the levies, so the committee needs to know where it came from. We start with the scheme itself: how each lot is used, tenanted and empty lots, claims, plant, building work planned, the sum insured and the last valuation. Then we go through the cover and the price with the committee and the strata manager, including what each choice costs.

At renewal the committee chooses which optional sections the scheme holds, such as catastrophe or machinery breakdown cover. It chooses the wording the scheme is placed on. It also sets the sum insured.

A move from office use to a cafe, gym, workshop, or other higher-hazard activity can change the insurer's view of the whole scheme. So can vacancy. Tell us as soon as possible when occupancy, business activities, vacancy or the tenant mix changes, wherever the property is located. The insurer decides whether a change affects its acceptance, terms or premium.

Building work matters too. On most of the scheme policies we place, the insurer's written consent is needed before work above a set value starts.

Where commercial and residential lots share a scheme, mixed-use building insurance explains who carries the building cover.

The scheme's policy usually stops short of your fit-out, air conditioning that serves only your lot, your own liability, and loss of rent above the scheme's cap. If you let a unit in the scheme, commercial landlord insurance for your strata unit explains that cover alongside the scheme's policy.

From our book of commercial strata lot owner policies, the median premium for fit-out, loss of rent and the lot owner's own liability together was $1,412 a year, all up including fees, as at October 2026, with half of those owners paying between $1,098 and $1,757.

Strata insurance vs building insurance shows what each policy leaves with you.

On a policy we look after, our specialist claims manager takes the claim up with the insurer, and your broker stays involved. One event can damage the scheme's building and individual lot owners' fit-out. We check the damaged items against the scheme's policy and the lot owners' cover to work out which insurer should handle each part. The insurer makes the decision, and we press for what the policy and the evidence support.

We own a commercial strata unit at Eagle Farm, once one of our offices, so we know strata insurance from the owner's side. On a scheme, we check:

• Scheme cover. Building sum insured, valuation date, expiry and key extensions. We can help you get the scheme's certificate of currency (the insurer's proof the policy is in force).
• Glass. On one wording, broken glass is covered only if the scheme bought that separate section. On a shopfront scheme we check the schedule shows it.
• Desktop building replacement estimate. We commission a desktop building replacement estimate for you, free. It is worked out from aerial and street imagery rather than a site visit, to inform the advice we give. It does not replace the independent valuation Queensland law requires where the body corporate must insure the building. See Desktop Building Replacement Estimate.
• Roof condition. For the scheme, we review the roof's condition from aerial imagery.