Oils ain’t oils when it comes to home insurance

Covers that many of us take for granted under a home and contents policy have been taken out of some policies over the past decade or so and this has allowed the price of insurance to appear cheaper and can catch out insureds who purchase simply on price alone.

As I have been arguing for decades, insurance is about protection, not price.

Following the recent hail storm, Wendy a senior LMI PolicyComparison researcher provided a full comparison sheet to assist the teams at Aequum Adjusters, LMI Claims and Claims Management International attend effectively and efficiently with the claims they are dealing with following the hail storm in Brisbane earlier this week.

Wendy focused on coverage for:

• the Insured Event – Storm;
  • Additional Cost of Temporary Accommodation; and
• Separate Basis of Settlement for Storm, Rain, Wind to Gates, Fences, Freestanding Walls.
• Temporary Accommodation

In the download Wendy created from LMI PolicyComparison, she highlighted those Insurers that have areas of coverage outside what we would traditionally expect.

In particular there was a group of Insurers that do not cover Temporary Accommodation under Contents for Renters. The Insurers were:

• AAMI
• Australian Seniors
• Capricorn Mutual
• Coles
• Defence Service Homes
• EBM Tenant Cover
• Kogan
• RACQ*
• Real
• Woolworths
• Youi

*RACQ – do have cover under Contents for “Extra Living Expenses” but they fall short of saying temporary accommodation and they specifically exclude rent.

An area that many people are probably not aware of not having cover is storm damage to fences. In the spreadsheet below Wendy has highlighted the ones that cover it and do not have any exclusions/conditions on cover. Of the remaining some will exclude gates & fences for storm damage outright whilst others: (a) provide cover but apply depreciation (b) only provide cover if the fences were structurally sound and well maintained prior to the event (c) only provide cover for fences made out of a specific material (d) only provide cover for fences less than a certain age.

As expected, most would only cover half the cost of a dividing fence. There are a lot of hail damaged fences in this event and some people might get an unpleasant surprise when they contact their Insurer.

As expected no insurer excluded Hail under Storm and the majority excluded water entering the building unless through an opening created by the storm which in the case of this weekend’s storm would cover where the hail had put holes in the tiles/windows and water got in.

Below is the list of those policies that either have extra or reduced cover from the traditional standard.