1 Aug 2022

Are insurers the reason for landlords doing flat inspections?

From Nine To Noon, 9:15 am on 1 August 2022
Wellington houses

When calculating average prices for a house extreme figures can skew a mean, so you're better off calculating the median price. Photo: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Jared Kelly / Flickr

Private landlords say they don't necessarily want to conduct frequent intrusive inspections of rented properties, but rigid insurance policies require it.  Landlords and property managers who take out loss-of-rent policies have to carry out regular inspections to cover their insurance obligations - or risk having a claim rejected. Most insurers require these to be done every three months. The Property Investors Federation says for low risk, long term tenants, this is onerous and unnecessary, and Renters United says such frequent inspections are stressful and and intrusive for tenants. Susie Ferguson speaks with Property Investors Federation President Andrew King; Geordie Rogers, President of the tenants' advocacy group Renters United and Tim Grafton, the Chief Executive of the Insurance Council.