Insurance and Risk:
Insurance policies are expensive, and can be difficult to choose between, especially when a community group requires policies usually adopted for companies. The following headings give an overview of the challenges involved with procuring insurance as a community:
-
Talk to other communities to work out who they recommend. Ask brokers or insurers questions before committing to them, and don't hesitate to look for another firm if the one you are working with is uncooperative. Negotiate risk to reduce cost. Insurers with little experience of collective housing risk may not understand the likely reduced risk in a collective housing project.
-
In any complex multi-party long term endeavour, good insurance coverage is highly valuable. Choosing which types are worth the cost is complex, but groups such as ICNZ and Consumer NZ have good guides to the types available, what they cover, and who needs them. A collective housing community may require some combination of commercial property insurance, home & contents insurance policies either as a group or as individuals, and potentially some public liability insurance. There are a range of separate construction period insurances required that are a separate and additional insurance matter that also requires specialist advice.
-
Collective housing can be a useful tool for reducing the risks associated with property ownership. Better earthquake and fire protection can be incorporated due to economies of scale, and secure communal storage can provide better protection than a cheap shed. New construction, and holistically designed sites can also reduce the likelihood of flooding, liquefaction, and wind damage.
