It’s often a property where you live on the site in your own residence, and 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.
We make it easy with initio. Using our guide above – work out which type of home and income property you have. If its the most common “Own Home and Income” then use the following steps:
- Get an instant quote for your Own Home (your residence).
- Review the insured value on the quote page (this is the insured value for your own home)
- From your quote page, follow the steps to Get Insured.
- Once insured, from your initio dashboard click add property to get a quote for the additional dwelling.
- Review the insured value of this property and follow the steps to Get Insured.
- Once complete you will have two policies showing on your dash. One for your ‘Home’ and one for your ‘Income’.
Start the process now by getting a quote for your own home.
Get quote for your residence
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 landlord risk exists, and normal house insurance does not cover things like loss of rents and damage caused by the tenant.
Learn more about landlord insurance
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 they 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. To this extent you are exposed to additional risks such as loss of rent and malicious damage by the tenant. That’s why we recommend a separate landlord policy is put in place, in addition to your own home insurance.
This is your choice, but for the sake of convenience, 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 straightforward with a single insurer, which will speed up the claims process.
- A two-storey home; where you and your family live on one floor and tenants rent out the other floor.
- A property with two homes; you and your family reside in the main home, and you have tenants in the granny flat.
- A property with a home and studio; you live in a studio unit while tenants rent the main home.
- A duplex townhouse; where you live in one townhouse, and tenants rent the other.
- A property with a flat over the garage; you live in the home and your tenants rent the garage flat.
- Adjoined units; where you live in one unit and the other unit is rented to tenants.
- A multi-unit complex; where you live in one unit and the other units are rented to tenants. (This would require a one home policy and a multi-unit rental policy)
And home and income, with a rental property examples:
- Property with two homes; where the main home is rented, and you have seperate tenants in the granny flat.
- Property with Home and a standalone studio; where the the home and studio have seperate tenancy’s.
- Property with a flat over the garage; you have tenants in the home and other tenants rent the standalone garage and flat.
And some examples of when the rental(s) are attached
- Two-storey home; where each floor has a seperate tenancy.
- Property with a home and attached studio; where the the home and studio have seperate tenancies.
- Duplex townhouse; that is rented to tenants. Property with a flat over the garage; you have tenants in the home and other tenants rent the garage flat.
- Adjoined units; where both units are rented to seperate tenants.
- Multi-unit complex; where you rent out all of the units to individual tenants.
