Compare Basic House Insurance

What is house insurance?

Home insurance, sometimes called homeowner’s insurance, is a policy designed to cover the cost of repairs or rebuilding your home if it is damaged. Exactly what is covered will depend on the type of policy you choose and any optional extras you add on.

What is included in basic house insurance?

Here’s what is commonly included in basic home insurance:

• Fire or explosion.
• Lightning or thunderbolt.
• Storms or cyclones.
• Earthquake or tsunami.
• Theft or attempted theft.
• Vandalism or malicious damage.
• Bursting, leaking, or overflow of water or oil from things like pipes, tanks, or heating systems.

Keep in mind, this list can vary between insurers, so you’ll need to check your policy documents for specifics.

Different levels of cover: Sum insured vs total replacement

When choosing your level of cover, you have the choice between “total replacement cover” and “sum insured”. These two ways of assessing how much money you could receive from an insurance claim and understanding the difference between them is important.

Total replacement cover

Total Replacement Cover will cover the entire cost of rebuilding your home to its previous state if it’s completely destroyed, for example, by fire. This kind of policy takes into account all costs associated with a complete rebuild, including materials, labour, and other construction costs, regardless of how much these may rise over time.

The big advantage of Total Replacement Cover is that it eliminates the risk of underinsurance — that is, the situation where the sum insured is not enough to cover the complete rebuild of your home. These policies can be harder to find and are more expensive.

Sum insured

Sum Insured is the maximum amount that your insurance provider will pay out if your home is completely destroyed. With a Sum Insured policy, it’s up to you to determine the amount your home is insured for, which should ideally be the cost of rebuilding your home.

The catch here is that if building costs increase over time (as they typically do), and you haven’t adjusted your sum insured accordingly, you could end up underinsured. This could leave you needing to cover some of the rebuild costs out of your own pocket if your home is completely destroyed. This is why it’s key to keep your sum insured up to date with market conditions.

How to calculate your home’s sum insured

Insurance providers ask for a ‘sum insured’, which is essentially the maximum payout they will offer if your house suffers irreparable damage. This amount needs to be based on the current building costs, not the price you paid for your house or its current market value.

Can an insurer do this for you? No. It’s your responsibility to estimate the sum insured amount for your home.

Accurately estimating this cost is crucial because if the sum insured is too low, you could end up paying out of pocket for additional repair costs. Or, if you insure for an amount too high, you’re essentially overpaying on your insurance policy.

Inflation tends to cause house building costs to increase year on year, so it’s important to keep your sum insured up to date. If you’ve recently renovated or extended your home, you’ll likely need to increase your sum insured value.

So, how can you ensure that you have the right level of house insurance cover?

Research your home rebuild costs

Research the rebuild costs of your home. Get in touch with professionals like a builder, architect, quantity surveyor, or property valuer.

These experts can give you a precise estimate of the rebuild cost of your home. Something important to keep in mind is you’re insuring for the cost of rebuilding your home, not the value of the land it sits on.
Are the contents of my home insured with home insurance?
While home insurance covers the structure of your house and other structures like garages or sheds, it typically doesn’t cover the contents or personal belongings inside your home. If you want to insure both the structure of your home and the items within it, you’ll need both home and contents insurance. Some insurers offer a discount if you take out both types of cover with them.

What is not included in basic home insurance?

Typically, basic home insurance does not cover:

• Accidental damage (e.g., spillage of paint on your carpet).
• Wear and tear or damage due to lack of maintenance.
• Certain natural disasters may not be covered (unless specified).
• Damage caused by pests or insects.
• Loss or damage to your personal belongings or contents (unless you’ve added contents insurance).

If more extensive cover is important to you, a comprehensive home insurance policy or choosing optional add-ons could be the way to go. These policies offer broader coverage and can protect your home against any accidental damage too.

You’ll pay a higher premium for more extensive cover, so it’s essential to balance your need for protection with your budget.

Potential add-ons to your basic home insurance

Many insurers offer optional add-ons to their basic policies, such as:

• Natural disaster cover: While your basic policy might cover some natural disasters, others like earthquakes or floods may require additional coverage.
• Accidental damage: This covers unintentional incidents that damage your home, like a DIY project gone wrong.
• Personal property: This extends the coverage to personal items that you carry with you outside your home, like your smartphone or laptop.

5 tips for comparing home insurance

1. Evaluate index-linked cover: Does the policy include index-linked cover? This means the insured amount increases with inflation to meet the predicted costs of rebuilding your home in the future.
2. Consider temporary and alternative accommodation coverage: If you can’t live in your home due to a fire, earthquake or other incident, does the policy cover the cost of temporary long or short-term accommodation?
3. Assess the excess amount: The excess is the amount of money you need to pay when making a claim. A lower excess amount might seem, but it usually means the insurance will cost more. Get clear on how much you can afford to pay as excess when comparing different policies.
4. Verify water damage coverage: Check whether the policy covers water damage caused by burst pipes or accidental flooding; these incidents can lead to big repair costs.
5. Review home emergency services: Some insurance policies include cover for home emergencies such as heating and plumbing repairs as part of their standard policy, while others may offer it as an optional extra or not include it at all. Are having these services readily available important to you?