Home insurance in ACT (Australian Capital Territory)

Home insurance (also known as building insurance) is designed to provide the policyholder with financial protection against damage to their insured building. Building insurance generally also covers any garages or carports at the insured address.

It’s important to note that home/building insurance will typically cover you for structural damage to your home building, like damaged walls or broken windows. It won’t provide any cover for the contents of your home that don’t form part of the building itself.

If you’re looking to insure your belongings inside a building rather than the building itself, contents insurance (also known as renters insurance) could be appropriate for you.

Contents insurance covers the damage, theft, or loss of a building’s contents (i.e. things that are not any part of the building itself). Contents cover can be suitable for renters and others who don’t own the building they live in, who have valuables or portable items they want insured, such as laptops or jewellery.

Want insurance for both a building and the belongings inside it? A combined home and contents insurance policy might be for you.

Combined home and contents insurance policies are typically suitable for homeowners, as they’ll generally own both the building and the contents at the insured address.

Landlord insurance is a specific type of building and contents insurance designed for those with investment properties being rented out. It can provide cover against damage and vandalism to the owner’s building, as well as cover contents owned by the landlord like furniture.

Some landlord insurance policies can also offer cover for loss of rent due to tenant default, in the event that the tenant can’t or won’t pay rent.

Landlord insurance can also cover a building owner’s furniture and fixtures at the insured address. Those looking to take out landlord insurance can opt for a standalone building or contents insurance policy or a combined landlord building and contents insurance policy.

For those who own or manage a building with rental units or are part of a shared land strata scheme via a body corporate, strata insurance will typically be the most appropriate home insurance option.

Strata insurance typically provides cover for an entire building or shared piece of land, and can cover loss of rent and temporary accommodation costs if units cannot be lived in following an insured incident.

The coverage offered by a given home insurance policy will typically be the same regardless of the state or territory you take it out in. So, if you take out a home and contents insurance policy in the Australian Capital Territory, your building and/or contents will typically be protected against the following insured events:

• Storm and rainwater damage
• Fire and smoke damage
• Theft or attempted theft
• Escape of liquid causing damage
• Lightning damage
• Explosion damage
• Earthquake or tsunami damage
• Breakage of glass
• Malicious damage.

Additionally, depending on the insurer and policy, you may be able to add some or all of the following optional covers to your policy in exchange for an extra cost:

Always read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for any insurance policy you’re considering for full details on inclusions, exclusions, and annual limits. The Target Market Determination (TMD) could also guide you on whether the product is right for you.

The cost of home and contents insurance in the ACT will vary per policy and policyholder based on a range of different factors, including:

• Your chosen level of cover. Your building insurance policy will typically be more expensive than your contents insurance. Combining these policies will cost more than either one would individually. If you add optional cover to your policy, you’ll typically pay a higher premium.
• Where the building is located. Different parts of the ACT will have a higher or lower insurance risk rating based on the risk of bushfire damage, flooding or the chance of a theft or break-in claim. Your premiums will likely be higher if you live in an area with a high risk rating.
• The insured amount you choose. The amount you choose for your building sum insured will be the approximate cost of rebuilding your home, along with any structural improvements at the insured address. For contents insurance, your sum insured will be the approximate cost of replacing all your belongings kept at the insured address.

Cover for bushfires is not compulsory in the ACT. However, home and contents insurance policies taken out in Australia (including ACT) will typically provide cover for damage or loss caused by bushfire as a standard inclusion. If your home is adjacent to or near bushland, this will likely increase the cost of your home and contents insurance premiums.

As the ACT is quite bushfire-prone, you may want to research what parts of the ACT are more or less at risk of bushfire damage. Once you have this information, it is easier to find a policy that provides you with adequate bushfire damage cover and select an insured amount that will be enough to fully cover your rebuilding costs and your replacement costs.

It’s not compulsory for you to have cover for floods in the ACT, but many insurers will offer it as a standard inclusion on their home and/or contents insurance policies. However, if your area has an above-average risk of flooding, you may pay more in home insurance premiums.

Some policies will let policyholders remove flood cover from their policy to reduce the cost of their home and contents insurance premiums – this is known as ‘opt-out flood cover’.