Landlord Insurance

You’ll need to choose a replacement sum insured that’s enough to fully demolish and rebuild your house to its existing size (using today’s building costs).

If you’re unsure what the rebuild costs would be, we recommend using the Cordell SumSure Calculator to help get an estimate.

See here for our full guide on choosing your sum insured.

We do not insure body corporate or apartment units.

We are only able to provide landlord insurance as part of a residential house insurance policy where we cover the house itself, and the tenant risks.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide standalone landlord insurance cover for tenant risks.

Landlord obligations apply to our policy which includes things like reference checks, and regular inspections.

You can see the full list of landlord obligations here.

Landlord obligations only apply to tenant related losses (e.g. meth contamination, intentional tenant damage). They don’t apply to non-tenant losses. If you don’t meet the obligations, and your rental property is flooded, you’re still covered for damage and loss of rent.

Meth testing between tenancies is not required for cover, but is recommended.

If you suspect there’s meth contamination at your property; and you then get a positive test, we will cover the test and cleaning costs. You don’t have to show us a record of past tests.

To learn more on when we recommend testing for meth see here.

An excess applies to each event that causes damage, so there are circumstances where multiple excesses can apply to a claim.

This applies so that insurance doesn’t turn into a property maintenance cover. If you could group multiple events of damage under a single claim (and pay one excess), landlords could include any small piece of damage around the house into a single claim.

To make sure premiums stay low and that insurance remains affordable for the major losses, an excess applies per event. To learn more see our guide here.

Changes to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2019 mean you can only hold your tenant responsible in some circumstances (depending on whether the damage is accidental, careless or intentional).

For an overview of who is responsible see here.

If you have landlord insurance you are covered for damage whether it’s accidental, careless or intentional. There is no limit for accidental or careless damage caused by your tenants.

Intentional damage is covered up to $25,000. If your tenant causes  fire or explosion the cover is not limited.

The landlord policy automatically includes up to $20,000 of cover for contents you own at the property left for the use of the tenants.  So chattels in the home,  such as whiteware appliances, furniture, heaters, cooking appliances, cutlery and loose floor coverings.  It does not include items owned by the tenants or your own personal items.

Tenants would be expected to have their own household contents policy if they wish to insure their own personal effects.

As the landlord, if you wish to insure your own personal effects, you can do so with initio as an add-on to your owner occupied home policy with initio.

It covers the lost rent you suffer when is unliveable and can’t be damaged by an insurable event.

E.g. if your house was flooded and your tenants had to move out, we would pay the rent you would otherwise would have received while your house is repaired.

Loss of rent is essential if you rely on rents to cover things like mortgage payments.

We also include loss of rent cover when your tenant is evicted for non-payment of rent, or abandons the tenancy. There’s up to six weeks cover, or until a new tenant starts paying rent.

If you need a little more information, we have plenty of helpful support articles at your fingertips. We’ve also written the five key fundamentals of landlord insurance, covering everything you need to consider when choosing a new policy.