Commercial insurance, explained in plain English

• How Much Does Commercial Building and Property Insurance Cost in Australia?

• Construction Cost Increases in Australia: What They Mean for Your Building Insurance

  Building costs in Australia have risen sharply since 2020 and haven't stopped, so a sum insured set a few years ago and only nudged along by indexation is very likely short of what a rebuild would cost today.

• The Co-Insurance Clause: What Every Building Owner Must Know

  A co-insurance clause can reduce a partial claim when your building is insured for too little. On the business packs Consolidated Insurance Brokers places, the test uses 80 per cent of replacement cost. Some compare your sum insured with that figure; some use a limit 20 per cent above your sum insured. The difference changes what you receive.

• How to Calculate Your Building Sum Insured

• Why Did My Commercial Insurance Go Up?

• Underinsurance on Commercial Buildings: What It Costs You

  Underinsurance can leave you paying for part of a rebuild out of pocket. It can also significantly reduce a claim payout when only part of the building is damaged. Consolidated Insurance Brokers uses a desktop building replacement estimate to advise you on the full rebuilding cost. We recommend insuring for that amount and explain how choosing less could affect a claim, so you can weigh the cover and cost before deciding.

• Why We Sometimes Recommend a Higher Excess

  Your excess is what you contribute when a claim is paid. On a total loss it comes off the payout. On a partial loss claim you pay it up front. A higher excess lowers your premium, and that saving can buy a bigger sum insured.

• How Out Of Date Is Your Building Sum Insured?

  An unchanged building sum insured can fall behind rising rebuild costs. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show non-residential building costs rose about 40 per cent between June 2018 and June 2026. A current building replacement estimate helps you check whether yours is still enough.

• Fire Insurance for a Commercial Building: What Covers Fire, and What Doesn't

  Yes. On the commercial building policies Consolidated Insurance Brokers places, fire is covered inside the building section, so you do not buy it on its own. What a serious fire can still leave you to pay is any shortfall between what the policy pays and the rebuild, and any lost rent, contents or liability you have not insured separately.

• How an underinsurance cut is worked out

  Sometimes. A thorough review can uncover errors in the values, costs or calculations the insurer used to reduce a claim. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks underinsurance reductions against the policy wording and works them out independently. If you are our client, speak with your broker before accepting a reduced settlement.

• Who Pays for Building Insurance on a Commercial Property?

  The owner usually arranges the building insurance. Whether the tenant pays the premium depends on the lease and tenancy rules. Paying that bill doesn't automatically insure the tenant's stock or fit-out. Consolidated Insurance Brokers can help you work out what each party needs to cover.

• Mixed-Use Building Insurance: Shops Below, Units Above

  If you own all or part of a building with shops or offices on the ground and residential flats above, the title determines who has the responsibility to insure it. An owner of a non-strata building insures the entire structure. A strata lot may not be yours to insure.

• How Your Roof Condition Affects Insurance Claims

  Yes. The cause of the damage matters, and the roof's condition is part of the evidence. On the policies we place, sudden storm, hail or impact damage is generally covered, whereas wear and tear such as rust or deterioration is excluded. Consolidated Insurance Brokers reviews aerial imagery of your roof for visible concerns that could affect your cover.

• What Insurance Is Required on a Commercial Building?

• Commercial Loss of Rent Insurance

  If insured damage stops the rent, loss of rent insurance helps replace that income. Your policy needs to cover enough money for a long enough period to allow for repairs and re-letting. Consolidated Insurance Brokers starts with annual rent excluding GST, adds the outgoings you can recover, and helps you choose the total insured amount and indemnity period.

• Strata Insurance vs Building Insurance for a Commercial Lot

  Strata insurance is building insurance arranged for a scheme. Your title, plan format and state rules decide whether the body corporate or lot owner insures the building. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks what the scheme leaves you to insure, including your fit-out, liability and loss of rent above the scheme's cap.

• Business Interruption Insurance Explained: What It Pays and for How Long

  When insured damage stops or slows your trade, business interruption insurance can cover lost profits and reasonable extra costs to keep trading or reopen. Your amount of cover and indemnity period need to allow for repairs and trading recovery. Consolidated Insurance Brokers helps you choose both.

• How Commercial Property Owners Can Be Sued Over an Injury

  If someone is injured at your property, they may claim you failed to keep it safe. Being named does not mean you are liable, but defending the claim costs money either way. Consolidated Insurance Brokers helps you check who the policy protects and what cover it provides for a claim against you as the owner.

• How Much Does Commercial Landlord Insurance Cost in Australia?

  In October 2026, office buildings insured through Consolidated Insurance Brokers for $1 million to $2 million had a median annual premium of $3,918. For retail shops insured for $2 million to $3.5 million, the median was $10,170. Both figures cover the whole package, including fees and charges. Your tenant's trade, construction, location and chosen cover affect the price.

• What Insurance Does a Commercial Lease Require?

  Your lease will often require public liability, glass cover and insurance for your own property. It may also specify limits and how the landlord's interest must be recorded. Consolidated Insurance Brokers helps you understand those clauses and whether your cover meets the lease requirements. If an insurer cannot agree to a requirement, we tell you.

• Commercial Landlord Insurance: What Cover You Need

  Your cover should allow for rebuild costs, rent lost after insured damage, and liability claims against you as the owner. You also need to know who insures the fit-out, glass and air conditioning. At Consolidated Insurance Brokers, we work through the lease and policies with you so you can see what's covered and what still needs insurance.

• What does residential strata insurance cover? 7 covers worth checking

  Residential strata insurance covers the building, common property and the body corporate's public liability. The policies Consolidated Insurance Brokers places all offer seven additional covers in some form: office bearers liability, fidelity, machinery breakdown, catastrophe, lost rent or temporary accommodation, audit costs and legal defence. Some of these sections are options, and each pays to the limit on the schedule.

• Insurance a bank needs for a commercial loan

  Your bank usually wants the building insured for full replacement cost, with its interest noted on the policy and shown on the certificate of currency. Your loan terms set the requirements. Consolidated Insurance Brokers releases your certificate once cover is in force and we have received your premium, including through premium funding.

• What can a commercial tenant do that voids the landlord's insurance?

  Changing your business activity, leaving the premises empty or overlooking maintenance can affect a landlord's insurance claim. These actions do not automatically void the whole policy, but your lease may leave you paying for uninsured damage. Consolidated Insurance Brokers helps you understand what a change means for the cover and when to tell your landlord and broker.

• How Much Does Cyber Insurance Cost in Australia?

  In October 2026 the lowest cyber premiums on our book at Consolidated Insurance Brokers were $915 a year for $500,000 of cover, $1,160 for $1 million, and $1,740 for $2 million (including GST, stamp duty and fees). Turnover, the records you hold, how money moves through the business and the sections you take set your premium.

• How much does public liability insurance cost?

  What our clients paid for public liability in 17 trades, and what moves the premium.

• If a Subcontractor Is Hurt on Your Job, Can You Be Held Liable?

  A subcontractor hurt on a job or site you control can leave you liable, at least in part. In Queensland, they can sometimes count as your worker for workers compensation. If not, it's public liability. Whether a policy responds depends on its wording and what you declare.

• Why does my public liability premium keep going up?

  Why public liability premiums keep rising: how insurers rate your trade, what one claim does, and when a general liability policy is worth quoting.

• Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance: Do You Need Both?

  Public liability covers injury and property damage. Professional indemnity covers a client's loss from your wrong advice, design or report. If your work can cost a client money without injury or damage, you may need both. Consolidated Insurance Brokers tells you which.

• Does Your Business Insurance Pay If You're Robbed?

  Theft is an optional section of a business pack. On the products Consolidated Insurance Brokers uses, the circumstances of the theft affect what you receive. Forced entry, threats and other specified events can trigger the main theft cover. Theft without forced entry usually has a lower limit. The property damage section alone does not cover stolen contents or stock.

• Does business insurance cover customers' vehicles?

  Sometimes, but never assume it. On the business packs Consolidated Insurance Brokers places, liability cover initially excludes customers' cars. Cover added back has limits or must be selected. A specialist motor trade policy is built around customers' vehicles. We recommend this cover for many clients in the motor industry.

• Is Your Stock Covered at the Peak of Your Busy Season?

  On most business packs we place, the seasonal clause adds 50% of your stock sum insured when trading or stock runs at least 20% above normal, usually for up to 126 days a year. That extra cover may meet your needs at your busiest times. Consolidated Insurance Brokers can check how it applies to your business and your peak.

• Why You Cannot Buy General Liability Insurance Online

  Not in practice. Standalone general liability is priced one business at a time by an underwriter. The insurers and specialist underwriting agencies we use work through brokers, so none of them sell direct. Hit a wall online, or been told it has to go through a broker?

• Do building certifiers, surveyors, quantity surveyors and building designers need professional indemnity insurance?

  Yes, and the limit depends on your licence class or endorsement. Queensland certifiers need it with any private certification endorsement (the authority to certify privately). New South Wales certifiers need at least $1 million plus 20 per cent. Queensland building design licences need $500,000. Consolidated Insurance Brokers matches cover to your class.

• Does insurance cover a chain of responsibility breach?

  Not your transport package. Its liability section excludes fines and penalties. The cover built for it is a management liability policy with statutory liability cover. It can cover the legal costs of an investigation or a prosecution, for the business and its directors. A work health and safety penalty generally cannot be insured.

• What insurance do you need for a government IT contract?

  NSW's ICT Services Scheme requires at least $1 million professional indemnity and either $5 million or $10 million public liability, depending on supplier level. Workers compensation applies where legally required. Product liability may also be required. Queensland agencies set the insurance requirements in the contract's Details. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks your agreement against your cover.

• What happens to your professional indemnity cover when you switch insurers or stop work?

  Past jobs rely on the policy running when a client claims and you tell your insurer. Switch to a policy with a more recent retroactive date, or stop without run-off, and those jobs can lose cover, unless you gave your old insurer written notice of the issue while it ran. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks that date before moving you.

• Do bookkeepers need professional indemnity insurance?

  Yes, if your work is a BAS service and you charge for it. You must then register as a BAS agent, and registration makes professional indemnity compulsory for as long as you stay registered. Anyone can call themselves a bookkeeper, so the question is what you do. Consolidated Insurance Brokers starts there, then arranges cover to match.

• Do architects need professional indemnity insurance?

  Professional indemnity, in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. Only Victoria sets a figure: at least $1.2 million including defence costs. Queensland requires you to take all reasonable steps to hold cover suited to your work, and New South Wales requires cover appropriate to it. Consolidated Insurance Brokers matches cover to your state's rule.

• Plant hire insurance: what cover do you need to hire machines in or out?

  Hire a machine in and, if it is damaged or stolen, the agreement usually leaves you paying to replace it, so you need hired-in plant liability. Hire your own machine out and you need hired-out plant liability. Wet hire is the simpler side to keep covered. Dry hire carries conditions you have to meet.

• What does public liability exclude for your trade?

  It depends on your trade. Most are printed on the schedule, and some wordings carry their own. Expect a height limit (often 10 m). Some trades add a depth limit or exclude rope and suspended work. Hot works are covered on strict terms. A hurt subbie can carry its own excess. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks each against your work.

• Defamation insurance: which policy covers what your business publishes?

  Yes: defamation cover can sit within professional indemnity, public liability, cyber or media insurance, depending on the policy and what you publish. For agencies, publishers and other content businesses, a media policy may be most suitable. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks the scope, exclusions and conditions before recommending cover.

• Marketing agency insurance: is professional indemnity enough?

  Professional indemnity may not cover everything your agency does. Creating content can expose you to copyright, defamation and privacy claims. Hosting websites or managing client systems adds a cyber element. Consolidated Insurance Brokers compares options relevant to your actual work, including media and technology packages, and explains the costs and gaps before you choose.

• Software and web developer insurance: is IT liability enough, or do you need a technology package?

  IT liability combines professional indemnity and public and products liability for your development work. It may not cover your own losses after a cyber incident. Consolidated Insurance Brokers helps protect you against claims over your work and checks whether you need separate cyber cover or a technology package.

• Insuring a Commercial Property Held in Your SMSF: What a Trustee Actually Has to Get Right

  A commercial building in your SMSF needs the cover any commercial building needs, in the title holder's name. If you bought it outright, that is the SMSF trustee. With a mortgage, your SMSF probably bought through a bare trust, so the policy names the bare trustee and notes the lender's interest. Consolidated Insurance Brokers arranges cover in those names.

• Can insurance pay a WHS fine in Australia?

  In most of Australia, insurance cannot pay a WHS fine. Consolidated Insurance Brokers does not arrange cover for that penalty. Management liability with appropriate statutory liability cover can help with investigation and defence costs. Whether those costs are covered (and how much the insurer pays) depends on your policy.

• Direct Insurer vs Insurance Broker: What's the Difference?

  A direct insurer sells you its own product and isn't required to check it fits your business. A broker is a licensed adviser who searches the wider market, takes your situation into account and is accountable for the advice.

• A note from our co-founder: what an "award-winning" insurer actually means

  An insurance award's scoring is usually genuine. The badge in the ad is, in many cases, a licence the winner pays to display. An award can tell you a product scored well on what the scheme measured, usually price and features. It cannot tell you whether the policy suits your home, and nor can ours.

• A note from our co-founder: how home insurance really works

  Home insurance is sold at three levels, and that structure decides more claims than anything else on the policy. A listed-events policy pays only if the cause is on its list. An all-risks policy pays for anything sudden and accidental unless it is excluded.

• Why did my fleet insurance go up, and what can I do about it?

  Look at the claims first. An insurer rates your fleet as one risk, on its own claims pattern, so one driver's at-fault claims can push up the whole renewal. Before you sign, argue any not-at-fault claims, consider moving that driver's vehicle onto its own policy, and have the fleet taken back to the market.

• Insurance Premium Funding, Explained: How Monthly Instalments Work (and What They Cost)

  Premium funding is credit from a third-party funder. It turns one annual premium into ten monthly instalments, with interest to help with your business's cash flow. Miss or stop paying the instalments and the insurance policy can be cancelled with money still owing.

• Commercial Insurance Terms in Plain English

  This glossary explains 59 commercial insurance terms in plain English, so you can look up a word from your policy, schedule or renewal letter, from excess and sum insured to co-insurance clause and indemnity period. It's written for commercial building owners and small business owners.

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