Important general information for you
You can contact us:
By phone: Call 13 44 ( 4 hours a day, every day of the year).
Via the internet: www.aami.com.au
By mail: PO Box 14180, Melbourne City Mail Centre, Victoria 8001.
In person: Call 13 22 44 for the address of the closest AAMI branch or customer service centre.
Value your insured property for its current replacement cost
Because this policy provides for replacing or repairing your damaged or destroyed insured property at current cost, it is your responsibility to value your insured property for the current cost of replacing it if it was completely destroyed.
The value you decide upon will be the amount your insured property will be covered for under this policy. Therefore, it is in your own best interests to make sure that this value is accurate when you first insure your property and that you update the value when you renew your policy.
To help you do this, AAMI provides an insured property value calculator. You can access it at the AAMI website www.aami.com.au or by calling AAMI on 13 22 44.
Inflation protection
AAMI automatically adjusts the amount covered for your contents at the end of each period of cover to account for inflationary trends.
When we quote you a premium
When we quote you a premium for AAMI Strata Title Landlord Insurance, the factors we take into account include:
the value of your landlord fixtures and fittings,
the value, when you wish to insure them, of your landlord contents,
our experience of the incidence and cost of landlord fixtures and
fittings and contents claims,
the value of the benefits we include within your cover,
your insurance history,
the insured address (the address where your lot or unit is located),
the cost of providing legal liability cover,
our costs of providing and administering this policy,
whether you pay your premium in instalments,
any discounts that apply because of your particular circumstances.
Government taxes and charges are included in the premium we quote.
An excess may be payable on any claim you make on this policy. See page 38 for further details.
Secure contents
When your landlord contents are insured under this policy and they are protected by additional security at your lot or unit, we reward this with a lower premium.
The security measures we take into account in deciding your premium discount are:
deadlocked external doors,
keyed locks on all accessible windows,
a local burglar alarm,
a back-to-base burglar alarm,
only electronic access (key pad or card) to the lot or unit or the building,
video surveillance of access to the lot or unit or the building,
doorman, security guard or security patrol.
Premium discounts may also apply according to:
your claims history as an AAMI Landlord Strata Title Insurance policyholder,
the number of AAMI insurance policies you hold.
Please call AAMI on 13 22 44 for further details.
Paying your premium
You can pay your premium annually by cheque, credit card, BPAY, online through AAMI e-PAY, or in cash at AAMI branches or Australia Post offices. Further details are provided on the payment notice we issue at the commencement and each renewal of your policy.
Paying by instalments
You may also be eligible to pay in regular instalments by direct debit.
When you pay this way, the total premium is higher than we charge for one annual payment, reflecting the higher costs we experience. Any premium discounts we may provide are applied before these additional costs are calculated.
Your responsibilities when paying by instalments
When paying by instalments:
you must be an authorised signatory on the account nominated for
your direct debit payments,
you must ensure that your nominated account can accept direct debits
and has sufficient funds to meet each payment at each due date,
your financial institution may also apply its own fees (including dishonour fees). Those fees are your responsibility.
What happens if your instalment remains unpaid?
AAMI may cancel your policy without notice if an instalment payment remains unpaid for one month or more.
Any claims arising after the due date may be refused.
Changing your instalment payments
If you wish to change or cancel your direct debit arrangements, you need to contact us at least seven days before the debit day.
If you cancel the debit completely, you will need to arrange for another way to pay us your premium, to ensure you remain covered.
Important things to remember when paying by instalments
When you first commence your direct debit payments, or when you change your account details, it may take up to 14 days for us to first debit your account.
If you believe that we may have incorrectly debited your account, please contact us on 13 22 44.
When you claim on your policy and we establish that the damage or loss to:
your insured property is so extensive that we decide to pay the amount covered,
we will require you to pay the total unpaid balance of your premium before your claim can proceed.
Government taxes and charges
AAMI shows on receipts any government taxes and charges such as GST, Stamp Duty and Fire Services Levy allocation included in insurance premiums.
GST
Any amounts we pay under this policy include GST.
Renewing your policy
When we offer to renew your policy:
we will send you a notice before the policy expiry date,
we will tell you in writing if there are any changes to the policy. Changes that benefit you apply from their introduction. Changes introducing limitations apply from the policy’s renewal,
we may require an additional premium if you make a claim in the short period between the time we calculated the renewal premium and the expiry of your policy. If the additional premium is not paid, we may reduce the period of cover to match the reduced amount paid.
Cooling off period and cancelling this policy
Federal Law provides that you can cancel this policy within 14 days of it's purchase. AAMI allows you to cancel your policy at any time.
In both cases, we will refund you the unexpired portion of the premium less any cancellation processing change to cover the reasonable administrative and transaction costs incurred by AAMI. To cancel your policy please call AAMI on 13 22 44.
We can only cancel your policy by giving you written notice in accordance with the Insurance Contracts
Act 1984.
Joint policyholders
When you insure your property in the names of more than one person, each person is a joint policyholder and is able to make changes that we agree with to the policy.
The privacy of your personal information
We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. That commitment is reflected in the AAMI Customer Charter and in our compliance with the National Privacy Principles. For further information, please visit our website aami.com.au or call us on 13 22 44 for a copy of our ‘AAMI and Your Personal Information’ brochure.
AAMI’s Customer Charter
We are committed to always provide you with the highest standard of service. The AAMI Customer Charter is a written document containing service and reporting promises which we are bound to deliver. In fact, we impose a penalty on ourselves if we fail to do so.
This unique Charter was drawn up through consultation with our staff, our customers and industry regulators, and is reviewed annually. Compliance with our promises is independently audited every year and the results are reported publicly.
The AAMI Customer Charter, introduced in 1996 was Australia’s first general insurance customer charter, and indeed, first retail customer charter. The Charter is your guarantee that we’re always striving to deliver the best in customer service.
The AAMI Consumer Appeals Service
If you are unhappy with anything we have told you or done for you, we want you to tell us about it. If we cannot resolve the matter to your satisfaction, other appeal services are available to you. See page 50 for full details.
The General Insurance Code of Practice
AAMI is a signatory to the General Insurance Code of Practice which sets out a commitment by the general insurance industry to raise standards of service and to promote better relations between customers and insurers.
The Code describes standards in areas such as buying insurance, claims handling, responding to catastrophes and disasters, information and education and dispute resolution. Introduced in 1995 with the backing of consumer groups, the federal government, insurers and the Insurance Council of Australia, it was revised in 2005.
More information on the Code, or a copy of the Code, can be obtained from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). You can contact the FOS on 1300 780 808, toll free, or you can access the Code at
www.codeofpractice.com.au