Post #2448644

2026-02-22 04:26 UTC

So ah, what&#39;s supposed to happen when no insurer is willing to insure a building, but the owner of the mortgage requires building insurance, does that trigger a foreclosure? I&#39;ll have to re-read of the contracts to find out I guess. We do currently have one insurer willing to cover the house, at a price more than double last years. All others refused cover citing increased bushfire risk. Will also be trying to see if any building/landscaping works can reduce the risk enough. But yeah, shit&#39;s getting real yo.

Replies (4)

@pwarren@mastodon.thewarrens.name 2026-02-23 07:39

Thanks all for the pointers and comments :) Things appear to not be quite as dire as I thought. Jen called around a bunch of insurers today and we got some much more reasonable quotes for similar coverage. Our normal broker who's been excellent and been able to find us lots of options previously didn't have access to as much as we thought, so I guess it always pays to shop around, even for brokers who's job it is to find good quotes! And yeah, the bank has an insurer of last resort, which is not great for the mortgagee, but also in our case has a retail insurer which was reasonable. We're now insured for $1mil rebuild costs at $5500 for the year, instead of the $9000 from the original quote which was only $750k rebuild cost. An interesting/scary tidbit from that research is that only central city suburbs in Tasmania are outside the bushfire risk areas. The suburbs even we can't afford to buy into.

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@projectgus@aus.social 2026-02-22 04:46

@pwarren@mastodon.thewarrens.name Oh, that's rough! Hope you can find something. Not sure if this is useful advice, but it can be worth approaching insurance brokers as well if you haven't already. Brokers often have particular specialties, and can sometimes access cover that you'd struggle to get to via direct approach. (Although I don't have any knowledge about whether brokers can help with bushfire risk, specifically.)

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@itgrrl@infosec.exchange 2026-02-22 04:54

@pwarren@mastodon.thewarrens.name 😕

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@gme@bofh.social 2026-02-22 12:50

@pwarren@mastodon.thewarrens.name I know I'm responding late but yes that would be grounds for a foreclosure. However, usually the lending company will get their own insurance for the property if you lose yours, and they will add the premiums to your mortgage payment (escrow). But one thing you can count on is that the lender will not get you the most cost-effective insurance or the "most bang for your buck" either. The lender's concern is simply about preserving the collateral they have (your home) in your loan.

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