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Its the busiest time of year …. for burglars.  House insurance is just one part of managing your house and contents risk.  Heres a guide on protecting your property.

It’s coming into that time of year where we like to take a load off – relax for a couple of weeks, put the feet up at the bach, or even head off overseas – but it’s also the time of year when burglars tend to be more active. Leaving houses empty for periods of time can be risky in several ways, and among other factors, result in an uptick of property insurance claims. We’ve all seen Home Alone!

Holiday homes are particularly vulnerable as they are often left unoccupied for extended periods of time, but even our own homes need to stay secure and damage-free over the silly season.

Burglary prevention is equally important for holiday homeowners, landlords, and people with a single main residence. Importantly, burglary isn’t only about having your contents stolen, but also the fact that thieves can cause significant damage to other possessions and the property itself whilst trying to gain access.

Property insurance cover is designed to protect you if the worst should happen, but as a property owner there are several steps you can take to avoid having to deal with the heartache and distress of someone illegally entering your property, and ultimately having to make a claim on your policy.  

Prevent opportunistic burglars from targeting your property by:

• Keeping all valuables out of sight. Gifts under the tree are tempting for thieves so make sure they, and other valuables, can’t be seen from the outside the home. Also be careful when disposing of any tell-tale packaging
• Checking window joinery, and promptly replacing or repairing any loose latches
• Installing security stays on windows
• Fitting deadlocks or deadbolts to all external doors, especially older doors and ranch sliders which can be more easily broken into
• Installing a burglar alarm and advertising the presence of an alarm
• Installing exterior sensor lights, and checking any existing lights are working correctly

If possible, make it difficult for someone to break into your home. Trim trees and shrubs so there are no places for burglars to hide and move wheelie bins and other large objects away from fences, ledges and drop-offs wherever possible. Lock your shed and put away any tools, to remove the temptation of them being used to aid access.

Something else to consider is not advertising that you are away: keep your lawns mowed, gardens tidy, the mailbox clear and avoid leaving messages on social networking sites and answering machines with dates and other specific details of your absence. Let your neighbours know if you’re going to be away, give them your contact phone number, and have if you a good relationship with your neighbour – ask them to clear your mail, or park in your driveway to keep up the ruse. 

Good security makes people feel safe; it also has the added benefit of retaining good and long-term tenants – and for holiday homes, a reputation for a safe and secure property.

Stay safe over the next month – and Merry Christmas from the team at Initio!

Covering yourself for an unexpected event that leads to damage and financial loss is exactly what insurance is for. For house and contents insurance, you are most likely to think of your typical risks that might include fire, property flooding or theft of contents. However, insurance goes much further the ‘usual’ losses.

At initio we come across our fair share of unusual claims. As part of our ‘2019 in Review’ we go over our top 5 most unexpected claims – with a few honourable mentions. We are calling this the ‘Annual Initio Claims Awards’

Expect the Unexpected?

#1.   Runaway Trailer

Sometimes damage can come from something outside of your control and your property. In late 2019, an initio customer in Te Awamutu was taken by surprise by a runaway trailer.   Concrete was being laid at the building site next door and one the contractors loaded trailers became unhitched. The trailer was sent rolling down the hill and ended its journey by colliding the corner of our customers house and garage door.

This resulted in significant damage to the interior lining, exterior cladding and the garage door.  Lucky for the insured their vehicles were not parked in the garage at the time, however a shelving unit and set of golf clubs were also destroyed.  Saturday golf was put on hold unfortunately.

Total claim cost $19,187.  In this instance, the concrete layers public liability insurer was pursued for the costs of this claim.

# 2.  Colouring-in competition 

When a customer rented their holiday home to short term guests they were not counting on their TV taking part in a kids colouring competition.   The guest’s toddler thought they would hone their colouring in skills on the large flatscreen TV.

The artistic crayon drawings were cleaned off but the hard crayons left permanent scratches across the screen that could not be removed.  A claim was made under their ‘landlord-holiday home contents’ which meant that the homeowner was able to replace their TV.

#3 .  The Phantom Bather

An initio client with a multi-unit rental property was expecting it to be unoccupied for eleven days between tenancies.  Two days into the property being untenanted, they received a call from their neighbour to say that there was water coming out of the property.  It appeared an intruder had entered the property gone up the stairs and decided to run a bath.

Extensive water damage included saturated carpet upstairs that then seeped through the floor to downstairs. The ceiling in the kitchen and dining room downstairs collapsed, and significant water damage and clean-up was required through the property.

While we don’t know what the motives were for running the bath, we know that the landlord was happy to have an initio landlord insurance policy come to the rescue.  With further costs still to come in the claim cost of repairs so far exceeds $32,000.  

#4 .  Rampant Puppies

After a tenancy had ended at an initio rental property early in 2019, an initio client lodged a claim for damage to the underfloor insulation. When repairers investigated the cause of loss, it appeared that the previous tenants family of puppies had found their way under the house, and shredded the flooring insulation from below.

Unlike many domestic insurance policies in New Zealand, the initio landlord insurance policy does not exclude damage caused by pets.  After the landlord’s excess, Initio paid out $2,225.16 to repair and reinstate the insulation.

#5.  Clumsy Chopping Board

While renting a holiday home, the guests popped down the road only to return to water running out the front door.  They certainly didn’t expect to find water everywhere, a swelling to the kitchen, kitchen bench, cupboards, walls and floor.

It turns out that while they were out of the house a bread chopping board fell from its stand and landed on the sink tap. Not only did this turn the tap on, the awkward way it landed meant it also redirected the water away from the sink, running down the bread board and into the kitchen cabinets.

The aftermath damage resulted in water damage to the kitchen structures, damage to electrical components, and loss of rent payments as the sodden kitchen meant the property could no longer be rented.  Total repairs amounted to $21,151.38 and are covered as sudden accidental water damage under the customers initio holiday home policy.

2019’s Honourable Vehicle v House Mentions

From AirBnB guests throwing a party to lightning strikes – we have had some interesting ‘honourable mentions’ lodged throughout the year.

Six claims were lodged with initio in 2019 for vehicle damage to properties – where a member of the public lost control of their vehicle and damaged our customers houses.

Three were involved in a police chase, whilst a further two were caused at the hands of drunk drivers.

Drivers who are responsible for damage caused are liable to cover the costs of repair. However in reality it’s difficult to get those responsible to accept liability (especially where it involves a police chase or drunk driving).  Regardless of the driver accepting responsibility or being insured themselves (not that they would have insurance if drunk or in a police chase) initio provides cover for the damage caused to the property.  We then pursue the driver.

The average claim for vehicle house damage in 2019 was $4,761.

‘Expect the Unexpected’ – You never know what could happen to your property. This is why it’s best to make sure you are covered for such unexpected and unusual events.

For more information on insuring different types see our insurance covers designed specifically for:

Home Insurance – for your own home, and contents.
Holiday Home Insurance – for the bach and for holiday homes that are also rented out (eg Bookabach, AirBnB)
Landlord Insurance – all in one house and landlord insurance, including loss of rents, malicious damage & more.

Burglary prevention is as equally important for holiday homeowners and landlords, as it is for one’s own personal residence.  Burglary is not just about having your contents stolen; there is also the damage that thieves can cause trying to gain access to the property.

Holiday homes are particularly vulnerable as they are often left unoccupied for extended periods of time.

Landlord Insurance cover is designed to protect you when the worst happens, but as a landlord and property owner there steps that you can take to prevent having to deal with the heartache and distress of someone illegally entering your property, and ultimately having to make a claim on your policy.  Here are some tips to prevent opportunistic burglars from targeting and gaining access to your property.

• Check window joinery and replace or repair any loose latches.
• Consider installing security stays on windows.
• Fit deadlocks / deadbolts to all external doors; especially older doors and ranch sliders which can be easier to obtain access.
• Install a burglar alarm and advertise the presence of an alarm.
• Install exterior sensor lights, or check that existing lights are working correctly
• Don’t advertise that you are away; keep the lawns mowed and the mail box clear.

Good security makes people feel safe; it also has the added benefit of retaining good and long term tenants.

Hamilton, New Zealand – 1^st October 2019

Specialist online property insurer, Initio, has been named as a finalist in the 2019 New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards, run by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF). Nominated as ‘Innovation of the Year’, the Waikato-based insuretech is being recognised for its customer-centric digital insurance products that enable customers to instantly change and update their policy themselves online.

This innovation, called Live Policy, was launched in October 2018. The product promotes instantly modifiable house and contents insurance: self-service innovation that enables customers to modify, add to, start or stop their house and/or contents insurance policy as and when they need to. The customer simply logs into a personalised dashboard to edit the detail, with any policy changes effective immediately.

The traditional process of modifying an in-force insurance policy remains clunky, with other insurance companies requiring additional human input and manual confirmation of policy changes from the insurer or broker.

“Live policy is about giving the customer total control over their insurance, without having to wait,” said Initio CEO, Rene Swindley.

“We found that many customers would set up their insurance online only to want to change something after the policy was created. These changes included things like increasing the insured value, updating an insured or interested party, adding specified contents items, such as jewellery, and simple fixes like a spelling error in their name or address.

“We felt that in allowing customers to modify their insurance when they wanted to, we added significant value to a more transparent and responsive insurance experience – the way insurance should be.”

In addition to Live Policy, Initio is improving the end-to-end claims process; currently able to pay simple claims to the customer in under an hour, the company’s mission is to pay out to customers just as fast as customers purchase their premiums online – in seconds.

When Initio was founded in 2011, it was transformative in giving homeowners and landlords the ability to effortlessly quote and purchase house insurance online in real time through its website, initio.co.nz.

Setting out to make insurance less complicated, Initio was the first provider in New Zealand to bind and receipt payment for a house insurance policy, 100% online with no human intervention, and since then has completed over 30,000 automated insurance transactions online. Remaining at the forefront of insuretech in New Zealand, Initio continues to challenge traditional insurance processes by developing innovations and claims experience that make for a far superior customer experience.

The ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Award Winners will be announced on Wednesday 27 November at the Cordis in Auckland.

For more information on the ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards, visit https://anziif.com/events/nz-insurance-industry-awards/2019–finalists

For further information or to arrange an interview with Rene, please contact:

Kelly King
022 045 5933

[email protected]

About Initio

Initio is a New Zealand-based online insurance provider, insuring over $2.5 billion in property. Founded in 2011 by a couple of Kiwis, Initio set out to change the broken insurance industry by using technology to put control back into the hands of the customer.

Covering landlord insurance, short-term holiday rentals and home and contents, Initio specialises in tailored online property insurance, including an all-in-one landlord insurance with built-in cover for loss of rent and damage by the tenant.

Having completed over 30,000 automated insurance transactions, Initio’s market-leading policies can be quoted, bought and amended online – all in an instant.

Initio is underwritten by NZI, a business division of IAG New Zealand Limited.

Auckland, New Zealand – Initio media release 

New tenancy legislation comes in effect today under the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2019 (RTAA). Among other things, the RTAA attempts to clarify liability for property damage between tenants and landlords.

As a specialist online landlord property insurance provider, Initio handles landlord property damage claims on a daily basis. Initio asserts the RTAA’s approach to property damage is misconstrued, creating uncertainty for both landlords and tenants.

Intention of the act

For property damage, the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act, seeks to:

1. Make tenants liable for ‘careless damage’ caused to the rental property; but
2. Allow tenants to share in and receive protection from the landlord’s insurance policy; and
3. Limit tenant liability for careless damage to the amount of the landlord’s insurance policy excess or 4 weeks rent (whichever is less).
4. Re-open the ability for the landlord to recover against the tenant for damage, albeit on a very limited basis.

Practical reality of property damage

Determining who pays for the cost, or insurance excess, of property damage is going to lead to disagreements between landlords and tenants.

“Many landlords have misunderstood the changes to the RTA and believe that the tenant will be responsible for the insurance excess on all types of claims,” said Rene Swindley, Initio CEO.

“The reality is that the tenant is only responsible for the excess on careless damage claims, which are uncommon. Over the last 12 months only 7% of our claims would be considered careless, meaning that for the remaining 93% it is the landlord who will be funding the insurance excess.”

The type of damage determines who pays

Initio has analysed its last 12 months of claims and determined that there are five broad ways a rental property can suffer damage:

1. Damage (g. storm damage to the roof, or a leaking pipe). These account for 55% of Initio’s rental property claims. If the landlord is insured, the landlord pays the excess.
2. Accidental damage by tenant (e.g. tenant slips and spills a glass of red wine on the carpet). This loss type accounts for 14% of initio claims. If insured, the landlord pays the excess for this damage.
3. Careless damage by tenant (e.g. tenant leaves a pot cooking on the stove and goes to bed). Only 7% of initio claims are considered careless, meaning that the tenant is rarely responsible for the excess.
4. Intentional damage by tenant (e.g. tenant smashes holes in a wall, meth contamination). Due to meth still dominating this damage type, 16% of initio claims are considered intentional. Landlords can obtain insurance for this type of damage. A landlord or their insurer can hold a tenant fully liable for this type of damage, but historically it is a difficult and lengthy process recovering costs (or an excess) from the tenant for intentional damage.
5. Damage by a third party (e.g. a third-party vehicle impacts the fence). Only 8% of initio claims fall into this category. The landlord is responsible for the excess, but the landlord’s insurer has the right to recover the excess from the third party for the benefit of the landlord.

Accidental or careless? Arguments to come

While the RTAA assumes that the landlord and tenant will agree on the damage, there are many subjective damage scenarios where this may be unclear. For example, a glass of wine dropped on the carpet or hot pot burn on the kitchen bench can be construed as either ‘careless’ or ‘accidental’. As the classification of the damage has financial implications to tenant and landlord alike, it is inevitable that disagreement will arise.

Given that the cause of the damage determines who pays, Initio expects disagreements between landlords and tenants as to responsibility. If the landlord and tenant cannot agree on the type of damage the parties can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for the mater to be resolved.

Change of insurance excess

Initio is a digital insurer that allows landlords to make on-demand policy changes.

“As Initio’s digital insurance offering makes it so easy for landlords to change an excess our technology has become a landlord sentiment barometer,” said Initio CEO Rene Swindley.

Initio does not recommend that landlords increase excesses as a reaction to the RTAA, as the higher excess will apply to all claims, not just the rare situation in which the tenant can be held responsible for payment.  Swindley says that initio is watching its ‘barometer’ with interest.

When deciding on a policy excess, landlords need to think about the insurance excess in terms of both their own and their tenants’ ability to fund and cope with the excess. Given that it is a requirement for the landlord to provide details of insurance to a tenant, it’s clear that the level of insurance excess will form part of a tenant’s decision to rent a property.

In coming weeks as real-life damage to rental properties meets the new RTA, it remains to be seen how much tension is put on the landlord-tenant relationship.

About Initio

Initio is a New Zealand based online property insurance provider. Founded in 2011 by a couple of Kiwis, Initio set out to change the broken insurance industry by using technology to put control back into the hands of the customer.

Covering landlord insurance, short-term holiday rentals and home & contents, Initio specialises in tailored online property insurance, including an all-in-one landlord insurance with loss of rent, and cover for damage by the tenant.

Initio’s market-leading policies can be quoted, bought and amended online – all in an instant. Initio is underwritten by NZI, a business division of IAG New Zealand Limited.

For more information on landlord insurance see https://initio.co.nz/landlord-insurance/