Home and Contents Insurance

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Home and Contents insurance NZ

We use technology to save you money on your house insurance

House insurance doesn’t need to be complicated, that’s why we give you a quote in seconds and insurance in a few minutes.

  • Insurance for homeowners

    Insurance cover for all the important stuff, including fire, storm, flood and earthquake and some extras like somewhere to live while we’re repairing your house and replacing your furniture.

  • Instant everything

    Instant home and contents insurance, no waiting for paper in the mail, manage your insurance and your claims from your personal dashboard anytime. Flexibility to change your insurance when you want, with New Zealand’s first Live Policy.

  • How it works

    1. Get a quote in seconds
    2. Choose your excess and contents value
    3. Provide some more details about your house
    4. Pay monthly or Annually by credit card
    5. Relax, you’re now insured by an AA- rated insurer

Understanding the benefits of our cover

House insurance benefits

Comprehensive House Insurance

Cover up to your selected replacement value.
Excess is your choice of
$400 / $650 / $1,150 / $2,000

Alternative Accommodation

Covered up to 52 week and $20,000

Breakage Extension

$250 Excess applies to glass claims

Retaining Walls

Included up to $25,000

Recreational Features

Swimming Pools, Spa Pools and Tennis Courts
Included up to $45,000

Hidden Gradual Damage

Covered up to $3,000

Owners Legal Liability

$1 million of cover
Includes Bodily Injury and Defence Costs

Natural Disaster

Includes EQC Cover
Plus top up to the replacement value

House Insurance Policy

Download policy wording for full details of cover

Contents insurance benefits

Replacement Contents

Cover from $60,000 - $220,000
Excess is your choice of $400 / $650 / $1,150 / $2,000

Home Office

Covered up to $10,000 in the home
and $1,500 away from the home

Legal Liability

$1 million of cover
Includes Bodily Injury and Defence Costs

Children living away from home

Covered up to $5,000
any one item limit $500

Overseas Travel

Luggage covered up to $5,000
While travelling in Australia & Pacific Islands

Contents Insurance Policy

Download policy wording for full details of cover

How house insurance works

Its all about risk

Buying house insurance is the easiest way for a homeowner to transfer the risk of unexpected damage to an another party, specifically an insurer.  Its about swapping risk for some premium.

The insurer will base the house insurance premium on a number of factors including location, age, water supply and use of the property.  The homeowner can also modify the premium by choosing how much personal contents cover the excess they can live with.

Learn more about what goes into determining a home insurance premium with this insurance quote check checklist

How much do I insure my house for?

Insurers will put a limit on what they are prepared to pay.  So the homeowner needs to get it right to avoid any financial exposure.

Most insurers require the owner to set their own level of insurance for the house.  The customer needs figure out what it would cost to rebuild the house, the land improvements (such as driveways, fences and pools) and allow for things like demolition costs and inflation.

A common mistake is using the market value or ratable value of the home to calculate insured value – this is not wise. Learn more about calculating the replacement value of your home.

What about earthquake insurance?

Most home insurance policies provide automatic cover for earthquake, with assistance from the EQC.

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) is a Government insurer designed to provide insurance for residential houses when there is a natural disaster.  The EQC does not provide insurance for damage from flooding or storm events, only earthquakes and volcanic activity. Part of a house’s total insurance premium ($230) goes to the EQC to provide up to $115,000 of natural disaster insurance. If the natural disaster causes more than $115,000 of damage the insurer of the house will pay for the rest, up to their sum insured limit. Learn more about the EQC.

What about other risks?

Good house insurance policies have additional benefits automatically included.

Sometimes referred to as policy extensions, these are benefits that are included in the policy such as alternative accommodation costs, covering the cost of the homeowner having to rent another property while repairs are completed.

Gradual damage, caused by leaking water pipes over a period of time, is also a common benefit.  Gradual damage often has a limit of cover, usually $3,000.
Learn more about gradual damage

How likely are our customers to recommend initio?

By Adam,
Simple and reasonably priced
By Philip,
Haven't had any issues yet but very easy to sign up and good price. It would be great if there was also no claims bonus or some way of reducing the contents insurance i.e 30,000 value not just starting at 60k or none.
By Deanna,
Simple, easy, logical and competitive
By Geoffrey,
Great to deal with!
By Gareth,
great service, friendly and helpful staff, prices
By William,
Easy
By Judith,
Just as easy as the first one. Wow.
By Judith,
For an old girl like me you made it really easy, thank you
By Leslie Brian,
Online Insurance Cover is easy and convenient and the Hamilton contact is excellent when we have needed to contact Initio for queries, etc.
By christopher,
if is affordable and easy website to navigate.
By David,
Easy to understand, intuitive and competitive price. Thanks.
By David,
Easy to insure. Reasonable premium.
By Andrew,
Easy to deal with
By Michael Lawrence,
Easy to renew, competitive, friendly!
By Philip,
All information is readily available and very easy to update or choose additional cover if needed.
By christine,
By Grant,
By Jordan,
By Brian & Glenda,
Fabulous service
By John,
Like the service, and also liked the 6 month inspection which you now changed to three months unfortunately.
By Genjun,
By Lili,
Very simple and intuitive website.
By Caraline,
Easy peasy
By Carl,
Nice easy sign up. Good price. Dashboard is fantastic.
By Lisa,
By Aaren,
Easy!
By Anthony,
The right policy at the right price plus you have been excellent when it comes to making claims
By Esther,
User friendly site, reasonable pricing, caters to holiday rentals.
By Suzanne Anette,
So far I have no reason to complain about anything.
By John,
By Josh,
When it comes to making a claim, Initio have amazing customer service. They were extremely helpful every step of the way.
By Catherine,
Good website layout, well written documents, good price.
By Craig,
Good pricing, simple site to use, quick and easy.
By Joanne and Jason,
Easy, but would like to deal with a person when insuring such an important item.
By Liam,
The online process is really easy.
By Janet,
Easy to navigate website, friendly informative staff with quick responses. Suze Ferry is excellent to deal with.
By bruce,
Ease of service
By Quinton & Wendy,
Good bastards
By Vivek,
By Simon,
Great price and good service.
By Murray,
Easy, quick, simple
By Pam,
Brilliant!! Saved me lots - now have 5 policies with them - so simple and straight forward
By Srikrishna,
Easy and hassle free insurance quote through to buying. Highly recommended
By Nicholas,
Easy
By Nancy,
Site was easy to get around. I have already recommended for another house.
By Luke,
Quick and easy signup process, rates very competitive ... I hope I never have to claim but if I do I hope the service will be superb :)
By Steve/Trish,
Always found easy to deal with and we have past and currently several policies with you.
By Lena,
By Gail,
Easy to follow the instructions to re-new the policy and I recently had a claim due to power fluctuations. There were no issues or delays on your part and the money was in my bank within one week after the claim was made.
By Jiri,
EASY DONE - awesome to renew, hopefully claim will be also easy if I ever need it ;)
By Michael,
By Rob,
Super quick and user friendly site, and initio include the things that really should be insured.
By Lionel & Robyn,
Very easy to update details and renew policy
By Joanne,
So far ... so good.
By Shirley,
Easy, also Initio dealt with our Kaikoura earthquake claims in a professional manner, and there were no hassles.
By Anthony,
Seems easy and efficient. Never had to make a claim and hope that to continue
By Dominic,
Saved me money, and was relatively easy
By thomas,
Easy to do and price competitive
By Robert,
Easy on line renewal
By Lee,
Easy to use online service, great prices and have already recommended to others.
By Glenda,
I lodged the claim online late at night and was advised by 10am the next morning that the money was in my account. This was way beyond my expectations and allowed me to buy a new phone immediately. I have since told a number of people about my experience with Initio. I was very happy with the prompt service. I found out about Initio because it is recommended at Property Investors Palmerston North. It gives me great cover for a reasonable price. Thank you.
By Roger,
After 4 or 5 years as a client Initio is still the simplest insurer to deal with and has overall the best package to suit our needs.
By Leslie Brian,
By Karen,
Cheaper. Have sent the info on to my 2 sons who own houses!
By Bill,
By Jeremy,
Best value for money, compared to my previous provider. Also really easy and clear when signing up!
By John,
Great service from Suze Ferry
By Grant,
Easy!
By Dmitri,
Happy customer
By Gordon and Carol,
On line policy prices are getting too expensive and we will be checking else where to see if we continue with Initio
By Caraline,
Covientient and much cheaper than other insurers
By Tony,
I was very pleased with the whole claim process.
By Paul,
Simple, understandable, low premium
By Lisa,
because you are pretty good... but thankfully I have not had to make a claim .... then we will see ;)
By Paul,
I like that you are patient and that you were able to answer any questions that I had about the claims process. The claims process went smoothly which helped a lot when I was quite stressed over the house flood.
By Cathy,
Because Michael told me to - it was great though :) I just put a rental property and my own home through you guys online and you saved me over $1200 - thanks
By Paul and Leyette,
Easy renewal, reasonable premiums
By Alita and Jonathan,
By John,
Good Service.
By Craig,
Easy to obtain quote and then proceed with cover. Reasonable charges. Good response from Support.
By Joanne and Jason,
It's easy and Frank people are super friendly and easy to use.
By Lisa,
By Barry,
Always a pleasure to deal with and quick to respond to questions. Competitive pricing and easy to see what's due and pay via the online dashboard.
By Chris,
Very effecient and friendly staff. The online claim form is very easy to use and convenient. Claims were easy and payments were quick. Due to these reasons, I have just renewed my policy for 2018-19 with initio.
By Anita,
Ease of use and relationship with Bookabach.
By Jeremy,
Very simple and straight forward to use and very cost competitive.
By Jacob,
By Steve and Trish,
We have had several rental policies with you previously and currently still two plus now our private home and have always found all dealings excellent. We believe we have good cover for reasonable premiums.

Useful links

Guide to insuring your home

Since a home will probably be the biggest asset we own, we’ll need to protect it in case something unexpected happens. With most house insurance, it’s up to us to set our ‘sum insured’ – the capped amount the insurer would pay if our home were destroyed

Find out more at sorted

 

Understanding house and contents insurance

For most people, their house is their most valuable asset. As with all types of insurance, you have choices depending on what types of insurance best suit your needs, and how much you are looking to pay for that insurance.

Understanding house and contents insurance from icnz

What property buyers need to know about insurance

Your property is likely to be your most valuable asset, so it goes without saying that you’d want to insure it. If anything were to happen, like a fire or natural disaster, it can be hugely stressful both emotionally and financially.

Property buyers guide to insurance from Sorted

House fire safety resource

information on keeping your home fire safe. Checklists for reviewing fire safety, tips for creating an escape plan, things to look for both inside and outside the home, and information on smoke alarms and other fire safety devices.

Learn more about fire protection at home by Fire and Emergency NZ