By Emily,
Jan 21, 2021
good cover, good online chat service
Get cover for your home, contents and the additional space or unit you rent out. Covers specifically designed for the various types of home and income properties
Its simple and uncomplicated insurance. We’ll guide you through what combination of policies you need to insure your Home and Income property. Whether its a standalone transportable on the back of your property with a long term tenant in it, or a bedroom you rent out to short stay guests we have an insurance solution to suit.
You’ll receive protection for all the important events including fire, earthquake, flood as well as landlord risks such as loss of rent, damage by tenants, meth, landlords contents, landlords liability.
Need more help choosing cover?
Cover for any accidental damage by you or your guests.
Cover for deliberate damage or theft by paying guests.
Cover for loss of rent you suffer because of damage to the house. Up to 52 weeks based on historical and future bookings
It’s often a property where you live on the site in your own residence and you also have another residential unit or dwelling on the same land that you rent out to longer term tenants from which you receive an income – “home and income”
The additional property could be in the form of a self contained ‘granny flat’ attached to your main residence OR it could be a completely separate unit or dwelling on your property.
Landlords also refer to properties as being ‘Home & Income’ when it’s a property that has two different tenants occupying it. We like to classify these as ‘Home and Income Rentals’. These are easily insured using two landlord insurance policies.
In recent times, home and income properties have also come to mean AirBnB style houses where a home owner rents a single room or part of their home (eg downstairs) to a short staying guest.
Its easy with initio. The process is straight forward. Using our guide above – work out what type of home and income property you have. If its the most common “Own Home and Income” then use the following steps:
Start the process by getting a quote for your own home.
Also known as rental property, landlord insurance is an insurance policy that specifically provides protection for property owners who rent a residential house out to a tenant. The existence of a tenancy agreement means that a landlord risk exists, and normal house insurance does not cover things like loss of rents and damage caused by the tenant
It depends how the property is used as to whether we can provide cover:
Dedicated short stay – we won’t provide cover
If the additional unit (eg airBnB or Bookabach) is rented out to short term guests, is run purely for short term guests (ie not used by you as part of your ‘residence) and its situated on the same property as your own home then this means that the additional dwelling does not meet the definition of a residential dwelling under the Earthquake Commission Act 1993.
You will most likely require a commercial policy to cover the additional unit on your own property.
Used by you as part of your residence – we WILL provide cover
If you use the additional unit as part of your own residence and also rent it out to short staying guests then you we can provide cover:
Simply insure your own home with us, and then through through Initio dash add the additional property as a rental property / landlord property.
A single dwelling (or living unit) is a premises that is fully self contained.
To be self-contained a premises must contain the facilities necessary for day-to-day living on an indefinite basis.
There must be somewhere:
• to cook;
• to sleep;
• to live;
• to wash; and
• to carry out ablutions.
Generally speaking if the additional dwelling does not have any of these things then it can be insured as part of the house without the need for an additional policy.
If the additional unit at your own residence is not self contained then it does not require its own separate insurance policy. You can include the unit as part of the main dwelling (ie add the replacement value of the unit to your own home insured value).
To be self contained all of the following things but apply. There must be somewhere to:
• to cook;
• to sleep;
• to live;
• to wash; and
• to carry out ablutions.
A tenant can only be held liable for damage if the landlord can prove that the deliberately caused the damage. A landlord cannot hold a tenant responsible for damage caused by accident, neglect, stupidity. Learn more about how the Holler v Osaki court case affects landlords.
Yes, you are a landlord if you receive income for renting out a self contained unit / dwelling on your property. So to this extent you are exposed to additional risks such as loss of rent and malicious damage by the tenant. This is why we recommend that a separate landlord policy is put in place, in addition to your own home insurance.
This is your choice but we strongly recommend that Home & Income properties are insured with a single insurer. If you have a claim (eg a major fire, or an earthquake) your claim will be more straight forward with a single insurer.
And home and income, with a rental property examples:
And some examples of when the rental(s) are attached