Which residential buildings can join this initiative?

CoverWell’s focus is on apartment buildings and townhouse complexes in unit title ownership in Wellington City. Apartment buildings in company share or cross-lease ownership structures in Wellington City are also included.

We recognise insurance is also an issue for these buildings outside of Wellington, but we have limited resources and need to keep our scope to a manageable level.

Single residential dwellings are not part of this work as they are not covered by the Unit Titles Act 2010.

I’m an owner in an apartment building in Wellington, how can our building be involved?

Talk to your Chair and ask them to register with CoverWell. We have a flyer in our Resources section that you can send to your Chair, which provides an overview of CoverWell. On that same page on our website there is also a link to the online form the Chair will need to complete to provide high-level information on your building and contact details.

We need the BC Chair as the contact, or a person with the delegated responsibility for insurance. This ensures that they have the authority and are able to provide the required information.

What happens after our building and BC Chair details are provided to CoverWell?

We will acknowledge that we have received your details and our database will be updated. We will be providing updates to the Chair/delegate as our research and engagement activities progress. In due course, we will seek further details on your building to help build the picture of apartment buildings in Wellington to inform discussion and development of options.

The contact data and data about your building and insurance is being held by CoverWell and only accessed by those working on the initiative. Building identification and contact information will not be provided to any third party unless the BC Chair/delegate expressly agrees.

Won’t the information about insurance duplicate what we have already provided in the survey for The Treasury?

Yes, there will be some duplication in the high-level and detailed building information that CoverWell will collect and what you have provided to The Treasury. You will be able to use your response to The Treasury survey to complete the CoverWell form, and some of the detailed information.

While we will be able to request the anonymised survey data from The Treasury in due course, we need to know which building it relates to.

When will we have access to an alternative solution?

We cannot provide a date at this time. We are building a better understanding of the options and what information is required on buildings to build a picture of this portfolio of buildings. For those buildings within our current scope, we will be asking for detailed information to support this work.

I am a BC Chair for an apartment building that isn’t in Wellington City, can our building be part of this initiative?

At this stage, CoverWell’s focus is on apartment buildings and townhouse complexes in unit title ownership in Wellington City. We recognise insurance is also an issue for these buildings outside of Wellington, but we have limited resources and need to keep our scope to a manageable level. We will be updating our website progressively and you will be able to keep updated on our initiative.

I am in a commercial building in a unit title structure, can I be part of this initiative?

At this stage, CoverWell’s focus is on apartment buildings and townhouse complexes in unit title ownership in Wellington City. We recognise insurance is a wider issue for other buildings, but we do not have the resources at this time to expand our scope. We will be updating our website progressively and you will be able to keep updated on our initiative.

When is it likely that CoverWell will expand its scope to include other unit title buildings beyond Wellington or commercial unit title buildings?

We cannot provide a date at this time. CoverWell was established in late 2023 to begin the research and engagement on insurance matters. As you will understand, this takes time. We are in the early days of this initiative and we want to establish a good foundation before considering any expansion.

How can we support this initiative?

We are working on this and will update this answer and our website when we can.