Insurance For A Condo

[yeti]

Hi,

The juristic person has the condo insured in case of fire, water leaks and things like that.

I don't need burglary insurance, as there are not many things of value that can be taken away.

Few questions:

- if there is a water leak in my unit, and the unit under mine is deteriorated, or if there is a short-circuit caused by one of my appliances and a fire, is that covered by the building insurance, or do I have to take a personal liability insurance for damages to someone else property?

- from what I understand the building in insured for the 'raw' value of the condos, ie it wouldn't include the million baht or so refurbishing I'm going to do. If I want additional building insurance, should I declare 1 million baht, or the amount I paid the condo + the amount spent on refurbishing?

- I'm considering buying insurance from Siam Commercial Bank (the less incompetent Thai bank I have tested so far), or NZI (aka IAG) as everything can be done online, or the SouthEast Insurance (http://www.seic2000.com/main/index.php) as it's the building insurance, and it could be more convenient in case responsability is not clearly established.

Anybody had problems with those companies?

Thxs

Yeti

[briley]

NZI - I tried online to find that it reverts to e-mail and then mail. I started to buy a policy 3 weeks ago and I still haven't got the paperwork to enable me to pay - despite wanting the policy to start 7 days ago. I am going to go elsewhere - although their product and price did seem very good.

QBE (Queensland) has a reasonable policy at 5K for 2 million of cover.

No English version of the SEIC page?

[yeti]

NZI - I tried online to find that it reverts to e-mail and then mail. I started to buy a policy 3 weeks ago and I still haven't got the paperwork to enable me to pay - despite wanting the policy to start 7 days ago. I am going to go elsewhere - although their product and price did seem very good.

QBE (Queensland) has a reasonable policy at 5K for 2 million of cover.

No English version of the SEIC page?

Thxs for your input.

I did the online quotation from NZI, price seemed reasonable, but didn't send it.

Do you have a website for QBE?

SEIC has no english page, that's why I'm a bit reluctant (gf is not specially good at reading / translating small fonts).

[briley]

QBE - don't know of a web site, just their office in Chiang Mai.

After the inability of NZI to get me to take a policy I've decided I want a company with a local office.

I plan to do the rounds today, rain willing.

[jumnien]

Condo insurance policies in Thailand vary greatly depending on location. In Pattaya, for instance, customarily if the primary resident is a single male farang the policy will cover the cost of medical care and personal liability in the rather likely case that the farang will leap from the balcony and perhaps land on another person, god forbid, another litigation-happy American.

[quiksilva]

Mde is correct but they also have All Risks Policies for common areas (fires, floods, etc). This basically insures the structure of the property and claims arising from common area defects/problems.

Condo owners should therefore invest in household contents insurance and third party insurance to cover you for theft, fire, flooding etc emanating from your unit etc. (God forbid the maid leaves the windows open during the rainy season whilst you are away...)

[samtam]

I looked into this subject when I bought my condo in 2003. The juristic person has coverage for buildings at a value of approximately THB500,000 per condo which I thought was woefully inadequate. This is on a worst case scenario, if say the building should burn/fall down. The market value of the condo is approximately THB20m, and whilst I understand that reconstruction and general building costs are low here, I cannot believe that it only costs THB500,000 to rebuild a 236 sqm condo in prime CBD. Accordingly I took out my own suplementary insurance of THB3m, and on top of that I have contents insurance. I think the concept of insurance is quite nascent in Thailand, but I did wonder if I was being overly cautious and applying the western approach to buildings insurance. I'd welcome hearing the views of anyone with knowledge of these things.

[briley]

Our Condo has no insurance at all - it is entirely up to the owners to insure. Most don't.

If the building falls down most people will lose everything. But Insurance is relatively high around 5,000 for 2 million of cover - that is 0.25%

UK insurance costs me about £150 for £250,000 of cover, 0.06%. Relatively much much cheaper.

This comparison is very simplistic but in a country where many are on less than 5,000 a month insurance is a luxury.

PS NZI insurance papers turned up this morning for those who read my comments before.

[kamalabob2]

Hello Yeti,

I live up country, but two years ago I searched on Google and came across an agency with physical offices in Phuket and Pattaya. It was also the same agency that twice I was given their card at the Bangkok/Phuket Private Hospital Insurance office. I have used insurance-in-Thailand.com to buy and re-new a house renters policy, First Class auto insurance, 1st class Motorcycle insurance and Health Insurance that actually covers visits to Up Country and Bangkok hospitals. Eric the agent (who I have never met face to face) advised me each step of the way via e-mail and telephone and I paid via my Visa card for the Health policies and on other policies at a Thai Bank. The policies come in English and Thai and were mailed via EMS promptly. Eric is a native English speaker, but his Thai language skills were the best from a Farang according to my wife. You can only imagine the "comedy show" of obtaining a quote up country from local insurance agents. I think it would be well worth your time to obtain a quote from this agency. As I understand the insurance market in Thailand, the rates are set by the Government on certain types of policies.

It is also my understanding that insurance agents should not "tack on" a commission on common consumer policies over and above the policy price quoted by the insurance company. "Commercial lines" could be a whole different ballgame.

Good luck.

Kamala Bob

[yeti]

So basically I'll take a good insurance for the contents, especially as everything will be new, I'll also take a personal liability insurance, will do this after the refurbishing is complete.

I will not worry about structural insurance until I see the amount for which the building is insured.

Thank you all for your input.

[dave111223]

I looked into this subject when I bought my condo in 2003. The juristic person has coverage for buildings at a value of approximately THB500,000 per condo which I thought was woefully inadequate. This is on a worst case scenario, if say the building should burn/fall down. The market value of the condo is approximately THB20m, and whilst I understand that reconstruction and general building costs are low here, I cannot believe that it only costs THB500,000 to rebuild a 236 sqm condo in prime CBD. Accordingly I took out my own suplementary insurance of THB3m, and on top of that I have contents insurance. I think the concept of insurance is quite nascent in Thailand, but I did wonder if I was being overly cautious and applying the western approach to buildings insurance. I'd welcome hearing the views of anyone with knowledge of these things.

500,000 for a 20M condo that is crazy! I thought they were required by law to have more than that?

My condo building is pretty old and not in the best condition, but yet we still have insurance of almost the fairly market value of the unit (without any supplimental policy).

[astral]

I would generally base my buildings value on rebuilding, not an inflated market value.

Haveing said that I am not sure how I would get a decent valuation in Thailand,

in the UK it is relatively easy.

[samtam]

Yes, there is of course a difference in market value and "reinstatement" value, and that is what I have tried to do. Difficulty is getting a realistic "reinstatement" value.

In London as well, market value is way above reinstatement value.

[yeti]

My understanding is that in case the building is destroyed, you'll most probably get some money from the insurance, and a percentage of the money that a land developper will spend to buy the land on which the building was built. And you better hope that the total is enough for you to buy a new condo...