Home and contents insurance is an essential form of protection for homeowners, landlord. Contents insurance is important if you’re renting.

Both are a package of insurance covers that usually includes, building, contents, special valuables, sporting equipment, as well as broken glass and Public Liability.

Insurers pay the cost to repair or replace the damaged item. The are many types of covers and options, so it’s important to understand what type of cover you need, such as cover for jewellery or sports equipment away from the home.

Home & Contents brief guide

Tips for Purchasing insurance

Before you purchase insurance we recommend checking:

• Cover type – is it a standard cover (listed events), or accidental damage cover;
• Use a free online rebuilding and Contents calculator, to make sure that you have the right level of cover and avoid under-insurance;
• Will the home be your main residence, short term rental or holiday home;
• How much cover is there for special valuables such as watches, jewellery or art, will cover be needed away from the home;
• Do you need cover for bikes, kayaks or other sporting equipment;
• What is the condition of the home, most insurers don’t pay for pre-existing defects such as water leaks from cracked tiles or rusted gutters;
• Location of your home, is it in a flood or bushfire prone area, some insurers may not cover certain streets or suburbs.

Four main sections of a homeowner’s policy

1. Building – this covers the house and any carports or garages, as well as the fixtures and fittings, like pipes and carpets. Basically, anything that you wouldn’t take with you when you sell the home.
2. Contents – this is anything you would take with you when you leave. Rugs, furniture,  beds and sporting equipment.
3. Valuables – contents policies only provide very limited cover for jewellery,  bikes taken away from the home or art work. So, it important to understand the difference between insurance policies and what suits you.
4. Public Liability – covering personal injury to visitors or people that enter your property or damage to their property.

Accidental Damage or Specified Perils cover option?

Specified Events cover

This type of policy will pay claims in the event that a listed event damages your home or contents. Events include fire and smoke damage, storm, storm water (different to Flood water which is usually excluded), burglary, glass breakage, malicious damage, lightening, impact by vehicles.

Accidental damage

This is a wider (and more expensive cover), this policy will pay claims for most unexpected events including damage to a carpet when spilling red wine, knocking over a table and breaking it and any objects that fall off.

Additional optional covers - at additional cost

Fusion of motors, sports equipment or jewellery taken outside the home.

Additional cover for jewellery, artwork and collections inside the home, above the insurers standard cover.

Flood cover maybe available, depending on your location.

Cover for other types of residential properties

Holiday homes or short or long term tenanted properties require a different type of policy to the standard home and contents packages.

If you're a landlord, you can purchase Landlord Home and Contents which provides similar cover, with extra options, such as loss of gross rental income, tenant rental default and damage by tenants.

Owners of strata buildings, holiday home, short term rentals or community titled property should have specially tailored packages, as they have different risks and cover needs.

Working out the Sum Insured for Your Home and Contents

Working out the rebuilding costs of your home and value of the Contents is important. If you don't have enough cover, you may not have enough money to repair or rebuild your home and replace the contents.  There are a lot of free insurance sum insured calculators, such as the Insurance Council of Australia will assist.

For information on what cover is available and best suited to your needs, as well as information on important exclusions that may impact you like Flood, contact your insurance adviser. They are specialist who can work with you to provide a tailored solution.

General Advice Warning

This communication including any weblinks or attachments is for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation or opinion, your personal or individual objectives, financial situation or needs have not been taken into account. This communication is not intended to be a constitute personal advice. We strongly recommend that you consider the suitability of this information, in respect of your own personal objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. This document is also not a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or a policy wording, nor is it a summary of a particular product’s features or terms of any insurance product. If you are interested in discussing this information or acquiring an insurance product, you should contact your insurance adviser to obtain and carefully consider any relevant PDS or policy wording before deciding whether to purchase any insurance product.