Domestic Home insurance is designed to provide cover for your home and personal contents against specified insured events. If you do have to make a claim, there’s a good chance it could be for one of the 3 most common events: fire, storm or water damage.
The devastating bushfires of 2019-20 reminded us all how important home insurance can be. Home and contents insurance can provide cover for your buildings and contents if they are damaged or destroyed by fire, including bushfire.
It’s not unusual for insurers to have a 48-hour waiting period on bushfire cover. Please refer to your home insurance Product Disclosure Statement for full policy conditions.
Home and contents insurance can cover the costs of repairing or replacing your home or belongings for loss or damage caused by storm. Similar to fire cover, there’s generally a 48-hour waiting period on storm cover.
Most insurers will have a definition of what they consider to be a 'storm', and it will usually require that the storm be a cyclone or tornado, or rain, hail, wind or snow of significant force and/or volume.
It’s important to note that you’re responsible for closing all the doors and windows to your home when a storm is on its way. If you leave these open for rain, hail, or snow to come in, you might not be able to claim. For full policy conditions, please refer to your home insurance Product Disclosure Statement.
With building and contents insurance, you could make a claim for loss or damage caused by the unexpected escape of any liquid from a washing machine, dishwasher, toilet, basin, fixed heating system, fixed tank, pool, spa or water main.
You could also be covered to repair or replace the item the liquid escaped from. However, you may not be covered for loss or damage caused by a gradual escape of liquid, or a faulty or leaking shower recess or shower base. For full policy conditions, please refer to your home insurance Product Disclosure Statement.
Things you should know
This article is intended to provide general information of an educational nature only. It does not have regard to the financial situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as financial product advice.
Home Insurance and Car Insurance are provided and issued by Hollard Insurance Partners Limited ABN 96 067 524 216, AFSL 235030 (Hollard) and distributed by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124, AFSL 234945 (CBA). Hollard is not part of the CBA Group. CBA and its related entities do not sell, issue or guarantee the obligations or performance of Hollard or the products Hollard offers and these insurance products do not represent a deposit with or liability of either CBA or any of its related bodies corporate. If you purchase a Home Insurance and/or Car Insurance policy, CBA is paid a commission which is a percentage of your premium.
For products issued by Hollard, information about the target market can be found within the product’s Target Market Determination available here.
This information has been prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should, before acting on this, consider the appropriateness of the product to your circumstances. A Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) is available at all Commonwealth Bank branches, by downloading them from commbank.com.au or by calling 13 2423 and should be considered before making any decisions about this product. You should also read the Premium, Excess and Discount Guide (PEDG), Key Facts Sheets (KFS), and Financial Services Guide (FSG) by clicking on the links, or by calling 13 2423 for a paper copy.
