I had an excellent experience with Debbie and the team from CIB with our building and liability insurance cover. Very attentive, great communication and the right solution for us! Thank you.
Property owners liability insurance
Quick answerDoes my tenant's public liability insurance protect me as the property owner?Your tenant's policy primarily protects their business. Any cover it gives you as the landlord may be limited. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks your existing protection, including any strata cover, and explains whether you need additional insurance for injury or property damage claims against you.
You can face a claim as the building's owner, even when the tenant runs the business. Defending yourself costs money, whether or not you're found liable. Let's find out what protection you already have and whether you need more.
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We had excellent service in obtaining insurance on a newly purchased commercial property. Clayton Rowlings explained everything so clearly and very patient with many questions regarding different options. Highly recommended! Thanks Clayton.
Tracey helped me sort out professional indemnity and public liability insurance for my new business - she was super helpful throughout the process helping me navigate for the first time.
Deja provided a prompt and professional service in securing a policy that suited my requirements.
Terrific experience with Gina. I had a difficult policy which other brokers couldn't find a solution for. Gina had an option for me within a few hours. I would highly recommend.
Thank you so much Cyndie for your help/advice/service. You made the whole process so easy. Thank you again. Jason Armstrong
Alison was a life-saver for us, staying after hours to make sure that we could get the building insurance coverage we urgently needed for a property purchase.
Debbie was always happy to help with my questions and very prompt with her service.
Hi I can highly recommend Aimee Spencer for all your insurance needs she has done a fantastic effort on keeping my insurance policy once again Many Thanks for all your work
Saskia Van Oostveen was efficient, professional, accurate, helpful and friendly throughout the entire process. Highly recommend!
A great experience with Tori, attaining some tricky commercial insurance, she was very professional in catering to your needs, whilst also having a quick turn around.
Jade was wonderful, finding me insurance coverage for a commercial property. Greatly appreciated her excellent service.
I contacted Tracey E from Consolidated Insurance Brokers for some commercial property quotes. Tracey was super helpful helpful, friendly and provided great advice. Highly recommend for all your insurance needs!
Thanks for your assistance Dylan with car insurance inquiry you have been really helpful and professional.
Shona was always available and answered all my queriers. A1 service and happy to recommend.
I contacted Renay after she was recommended by a family friend, for home and contents insurance. She was prompt and helpful and had me all sorted in a couple of days. Highly recommend!
I needed fast transit insurance this week and Daniel Roussounis was outstanding in his immediate response and getting this organized for me. Can't recommend Daniel and Consolidated Insurance Brokers highly enough!
Second year organising insurance with Jim K., did not have any issues and a smooth transition. I recommend
May Lewong at the Emerald office was amazing. Easy to deal with and was quick and efficient.
Reena was absolutely fantastic during the entire process helping me set you our new home and contents insurance. Would definitely recommend to anyone.
Natasha as always, gives us professional, exceptional service and would recommend her to any business :-)
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Written by William Paull, QPIB
Co-Founder & Account Director · Read William’s full profile
Own a building with tenants in it? Ring us and we check your own liability cover names the right owner, at a limit that suits the building and its use.
Why isn't my tenant's $20 million enough?
A claim about the building itself can name you as its owner. The policy your tenant bought is written for their business, and any cover it gives you may be limited.
Say a tradesman is hurt on the common stairwell of a half-empty building. Nobody is trading where it happens, yet someone has to answer for it, and the owner is usually on that list.
A claim can name you simply because you are the registered owner, whatever other policies sit on the building. Whether you did anything wrong is settled afterwards, and without your own policy the cost of getting there is yours.
You can be drawn into a claim even when the injured person sues only your tenant. A court can order an owner to pay a share of what a tenant paid an injured visitor, where the hazard was the owner's to fix.
Your tenant insures their own business with public liability insurance, and the lease says what the tenant must insure for you. On some of the policies we place, a tenant's policy can include the landlord, but only where the lease obliges the tenant to insure the landlord, and only for liability arising from the tenancy. That extension may be limited, and a lease that requires it does not show the tenant arranged it. Check the tenant's policy as well as the lease before relying on it for your liability as the building's owner. Our guide to what a commercial lease asks you to insure goes through those clauses.
Is it already on my building or landlord policy?
It can be. On the business packs we place, the liability section covers owning the premises if the schedule (the part of your policy that lists who and what is insured) describes that ownership or letting.
On most of those packs the cover reaches leasing premises too. That is how a commercial landlords policy can carry your liability as owner beside the building and the rent. Liability is its own section with its own limit, and on some policies it is optional. If nobody has confirmed it is on your schedule, assume it is not until someone checks.
A standalone property owners liability policy fits where you hold no such policy, or where yours does not describe your ownership or letting on its schedule.
What does property owners liability insurance cover?
It covers the owner of a commercial building, or a commercial lot within one, when someone is injured or their property is damaged because of the building itself. It pays the compensation you are found liable for and, on most of the policies we place, the cost of defending a covered claim, even one with no merit.
Owners usually answer for the fabric of the place: a hazard in a common area, a structural defect, a dangerous car park, a fence line nobody maintained.
On most of these policies, defence costs also sit on top of your limit, so a long defence does not eat into the money left to settle.
The policy expects you to look after the building. Most carry a reasonable care condition that asks you to keep the premises in repair and fix defects. A deliberate act is excluded. A defect you knew about and did not disclose or fix can leave a claim without cover. Most also exclude asbestos, wholly or largely, which matters on an older building.
Does an empty building change the risk?
It usually raises the owner's exposure, because nobody is there every day to notice a hazard.
An empty unit or a half-let building still has common areas. A contractor, an agent showing the space or a trespasser can be hurt there. Our guide shows how a claim like that reaches the owner. The policy still expects you to look after the place while it is empty, so keep the common areas checked and fix what you find.
Who needs property owners liability insurance?
Anyone who owns a commercial building or a commercial lot in one, whether or not they trade from it. The policy needs to name the people or entities it is meant to protect.
If a company owns the building, the policy needs the company's name. Where a trust or super fund holds the building, we check the trustee's role, because the trustee holds the title for the trust. The ownership and lender details are what we use to set those names. A policy in a director's own name can leave the real owner unprotected when a claim names it. Our guide on who pays for building insurance covers whose name goes on the building policy.
Hold several buildings in more than one name, and the cover has to name each one.
If you trade from part of the building and rent out the rest, both activities need to be allowed for. One policy may be able to cover them. That depends on the activities and the people or entities involved, so separate cover is not an automatic requirement. Our page for owner-occupiers covers the business side.
How much cover do I need, and what does it cost?
Your lease is a starting point: $20 million is usually written into a commercial lease, and $10 million appears as well. First check who the lease is talking about, because a limit required of your tenant does not tell you how much cover you need as the owner. For a policy that carries only the owner's liability, landlords on our book in Queensland paid a middle premium of $465 a year all up, as at October 2026, depending on the tenancies and what the tenants do.
We base the limit we recommend on your own obligations, the building and its use.
A $20 million limit costs little more to hold than a much lower figure. In our experience the difference between a $10 million and a $20 million limit is normally $50 to $150 a year. It depends on the occupations of the tenants and the type of commercial building, usually at the higher end for a strip mall or an arcade.
What happens when you ring us?
A broker asks what you own, who holds the title and what your tenants do. We check what already protects you as owner, such as a landlord or strata policy, and whether it names the right people or entities, a trustee included where a trust owns the building. Then we check its limit against your own obligations, the building and its use.
If the budget is tight, we say what a lower limit or narrower cover would not pay for, and the choice is yours.
When you claim
If a claim is made against you on a policy we look after, a specialist claims manager on our team takes it up with the insurer. Your broker stays involved.
The insurer decides the claim. We explain what information you need to provide and keep you informed, and where the insurer's decision misses cover your policy gives you, we raise it with them.
Short answers
What is property owners liability insurance?
It is liability cover for whoever owns commercial property, a whole building or a single lot, for injury or damage that comes from the building itself. Consolidated Insurance Brokers arranges it in the name of the owner it is meant to protect, whether a company, a person or the trustee of a trust.
Why do I need separate property owners liability cover?
Because a liability policy defends the insured named on it. Your tenant's policy names your tenant, and any cover it extends to you as landlord may be limited. A claim against you as owner needs a policy that names you. A property owners liability policy for a landlord is a simple cover and generally an inexpensive one, precisely because your exposure as a passive owner is narrower.
Doesn't the strata insurance cover me as a lot owner?
The scheme's own policy decides that. Some strata policies cover lot owners for liability, and some exclude them. Before recommending extra cover, we compare the scheme's policy with your own and check whether you are protected as the owner. The body corporate's own cover is on commercial strata insurance. For your property and rental income as well as liability, see cover for a commercial strata landlord.
Doesn't my tenant's insurance protect me as the landlord?
Having your interest noted on the tenant's policy tells the insurer you have an interest in the property. It does not by itself make you an insured or give you liability cover. Any help it gives depends on the tenant's policy being in force on the day, honestly disclosed and responding for your entity, and you control none of those.
What does this look like in a real claim?
A visitor tripped in the car park while visiting a tenant's shop, and the solicitors sent notices to the body corporate, the tenant and the landlord's trust. We handled this claim. Neither the tenant's insurer nor the strata policy responded for the landlord, who had no control over what happened in that car park. The landlord's own property owners liability policy did. Its insurer stepped in, negotiated with the other two insurers and contributed a settlement that made the matter go away.
Is property owners insurance the same as property owners liability insurance?
No. "Property owners insurance" usually means insuring the building itself, which is commercial building insurance, or the landlord package built around it. Most owners need that cover and property owners liability together. Property owners liability is the separate cover for your legal liability as the building's owner. If you are not sure which parts of a building are yours to insure, our commercial property insurance page goes through them.
Find out what your owner's liability cover would pay, or what it should.
Ring 07 3292 1111 and talk it over with a broker, whether the cover is new, due for renewal or one you hold now. We set the policy up around the building you own and its tenants, and tell you plainly what it leaves out.