Risk snapshot
A heritage mixed-use property in inner-west Sydney. Multi-million dollar building sum insured. Multiple commercial tenancies at ground level with residential apartments above. Single family ownership held across related entities. Public liability at $20 million. Business interruption on an extended indemnity period.
Situation
The client held the whole building in a single-family ownership structure and needed cover across the building, public liability, and income stream on a single programme. The core underwriting challenge sat in the ground-floor tenancy mix. A schedule spanning food and beverage, personal services, and retail tenancies on the ground floor, with residential apartments above, is a combination most mainstream markets flag out on occupation before they reach the construction and BI questions.
Construction and exposure
Brick construction, concrete floor slab, metal roof. Early-twentieth-century heritage building. Fire protection included extinguishers, fire blankets, sprinklers, hose reels, and smoke detection. Security via deadlocks, window locks, and CCTV. Property manager engaged for tenant interface and on-site compliance.
Food and beverage exposures across part of the ground-floor tenancy mix drove most of the underwriting conversation. Grease, gas, and out-of-hours fire load are the standard concerns. Stacking residential apartments above those tenancies adds an occupancy consideration that mainstream property insurers rate conservatively or refuse to hold outright.
Cover structure
Industrial Special Risks wording on the building. Public liability at $20 million any one occurrence on the combined programme. Business interruption on an extended indemnity period against the annual rent roll. Single placement across one specialist market.
Market journey
Ten markets approached in total. Eight mainstream property insurers declined outright on tenant occupation. One specialist market required a full five-year claims history before they would engage, which the building history did not yet support on the data available. A specialist ISR market engaged through the proposal stage, priced the combined ISR and liability programme, and returned firm terms.
Outcome
Firm combined ISR and public liability terms returned around $37,000 for the full annual programme. Tenant mix preserved, residential above ground-floor food and beverage covered on a single schedule, and the extended BI indemnity held.
Why it mattered
A multi-tenanted heritage property with food-and-beverage tenants and residential above is the type of risk mainstream packaged markets are set up to decline. Bundled occupation, a non-strata title, an extended BI indemnity, and a $20 million liability requirement each on their own would be enough to sit outside SME appetite. Returning firm combined terms from a specialist ISR market on the full programme structure, with no carve-outs on the tenant schedule, is the placement this type of building needs.