What is home and contents insurance?

Home and contents insurance covers loss or damage caused by ‘insured events’, sometimes also called ‘defined events’). The list of insured events varies among insurers and policies. That's why it’s important to check your policy so you know what you’re covered for.

 Generally, most home insurance policies cover insured events such as: 

• Fire or smoke (including bushfires¹ and grassfires¹)
• Theft or burglary
• Storm and cyclone¹, rainwater
• Flood and/or run-off¹
• Lightning
• Sudden escape of liquid
• Impact damage
• Earthquake or tsunami
• Accidental breakage of glass or ceramic items
• Vandalism or malicious damage
• Explosion
• Riot or civil commotion

If you're an Allianz customer, you can find a list of everything we cover in the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).

Here are some of the lesser-known Allianz Home and Contents Insurance and Allianz Contents Insurance inclusions, or details:

If you can’t live in your home because it's been damaged by an insured event like bushfires¹, we’ll cover the cost of your temporary accommodation. This will cover you for up to 10% of the buildings or general contents sum insured paid in addition to the sum insured.

Up to $20 million legal liability cover. This provides cover if you’re found liable to pay compensation to someone because you’ve accidently injured them or damaged their property.

Under our Home Building Insurance if your home is totally destroyed by an insured event such as a bushfire¹:

• You can choose to rebuild in a different location, or not to rebuild at all, if we agree to cover the cost of rebuilding
• We’ll help with the cost of certain environmental or resiliency upgrades such as installing rainwater tanks and solar power systems . If your building has been damaged or destroyed by a flood, bushfire or cyclone and you didn’t already have these on the damage or destroyed parts of your building, we'll pay up to an additional $20,000 after the deduction of any government or council rebates per period of insurance.

Under our Home Contents Insurance:

• If you can’t live in your home because of damage caused by an insured event, such as a storm, we'll pay to move and store your undamaged contents. This will be for the time necessary to repair or rebuild your home building or until you find alternative accommodation. The most we’ll pay is the remaining balance of your contents sum insured after we've paid your claim for damage to your contents
• If your fridge or freezer breaks down and you lose your perishable food or medicine, we’ll cover the cost to replace it. We'll pay up to $1,000 per period of insurance
• We’ll also cover property belonging to your guests, visitors or domestic helpers if it’s lost or damaged in the same insured event that you’re claiming for. We’ll pay up to $5,000.

 

This is a summary only of some of the features and benefits available on Allianz Home Insurance, as well as some of the exclusions. Before deciding on a policy, carefully consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Supplementary PDS (where applicable) which set out the standard terms, conditions, limits and exclusions.

If a standard home insurance policy doesn’t quite meet your needs, you can apply to add optional benefits for an additional cost. Check the PDS for what's available to be added as an optional benefit.

Here are some of our optional benefits:

This covers your portable items, e.g. wallets, glasses, jewellery, cameras, and mobile phones, from accidental loss or damage outside your home. They may be lost due to theft or an accident. This is valid Australia-wide or for up to 90 days worldwide when you’re temporarily outside Australia.

This covers you for accidental damage caused by sudden, unforeseen and unintended events.

This covers you if an electrical current damages your domestic household electrical motors, such as your fridge, freezer or washing machine, up to 10 years old.

If we approve a claim and your building sum insured is exceeded, we will cover up to an additional 30% to: 

• repair or replace your buildings, or 
• pay you the reasonable cost to repair or replace your buildings. 

This covers up to $50,000 for loss or damage to your general contents while they’re in a commercial storage facility.

Certain items may not be covered whilst in commercial storage. Read the Product Disclosure Statement for more information. 

If you’re renting the property you live in, you won’t need building insurance, but you can insure your belongings with Renters Insurance. Renter Insurance covers the cost of replacing your contents, such as your furniture, electrical appliances, and even your clothing, if they're lost or damaged in an insured event.

Learn more about Renter Insurance.

Buying a property as an investment rather than a place to live is a great way to meet personal financial goals. Landlord insurance can help reduce the risks that come with owning an investment property.

If your property is damaged by an insured event, landlord insurance covers the costs of replacement or repairs to the building, and any contents you provide for your tenants to use. Learn more about the specific features of landlord insurance.

When you take out a new home insurance policy, calculating the ‘sum insured’ - the cost to rebuild your property and replace its contents - can be beneficial. It’s important to be as accurate as possible, factoring in the actual cost to repair, replace or rebuild at today’s prices. This can help you avoid underinsurance, i.e. not having enough cover, and overinsurance, i.e., too much cover or cover that doesn’t suit your needs.

Keeping receipts, photos and even serial numbers of your belongings, and storing them somewhere safe, e.g. digitally, is a great habit to get into. They can help you work out how much to insure for and may also come in handy if you need to make a claim. 

You can also use a home insurance calculator to help you estimate how much insurance you need.

Home and contents insurance can sometimes be tricky. Thankfully at Allianz, our team is available to help make the process simpler. Contact us or get a quote online.