Renters, this is a simple guide about what contents insurance is, why it’s useful if you’re renting and some nitty gritty detail about what is and isn’t covered.
Life is full of weird, crazy and unexpected events. Sometimes these events aren’t great and mean your stuff in the house you rent gets accidentally damaged or lost. Meet contents insurance. It’s a helping hand if unexpected things happen and you need to replace or repair some of your stuff.
Contents insurance vs home insurance
First up, what is the difference between contents and home insurance? When you’re a tenant renting a house,insurance for the actual house is usually your landlord’s responsibility. The roof, the walls and things that are fixed to the structure of the house - that’s on your landlord to cover with their Home insurance.
What is contents insurance?
Contents insurance is cover for your belongings. That is, all the things you bring into the house, that makes it cosy, homely, and maybe a bit cluttered. This might be things like appliances, electronics, rugs, house plants, your couch and the sports gear stacked in the garage. Your landlord isn’t responsible for this stuff, you are, which is where contents only insurance comes in.
Contents insurance means if something unexpectedly happens to your belongings, your insurance company will be there to help repair or replace some of this stuff, as long as they cover the cause of loss or damage. Your Product Disclosure Statement (or PDS) should tell you what your insurance does and doesn’t cover.
Why do I need contents insurance?
Compulsive shopper, reformed minimalist or tech-junkie, many of us own much more stuff than we think we do (or like to admit). If you had to replace it all you could be looking at a big dent in your bank account.
If you write down a list of ALL the things in your room or house, and roughly how much it cost, you might be surprised how much it’s actually worth. You could start with your laptop and other electronics, your favourite clothes and shoes and then start to factor in things like sports gear or jewellery and you’ll start to get a picture of how much everything adds up to.
Now jumping back to contents insurance, it should help make sure these things have protection if something happens, like a flood, fire or theft. If the event is covered by your contents insurance you won’t have to cover the full cost on your own, so you’re back on your feet faster.
What events are covered?
Some of the events you’re covered for when you have contents insurance with Huddle include: fire (including bushfire), theft, flood, explosion, lightning, earthquake and storm damage
What stuff does contents insurance protect?
Here’s some of the common items, which you probably own (and that would be expensive to replace), that are covered by contents insurance:
art, watches, jewellery, sporting equipment, carpets, rugs, furniture, electronics, bicycles, portable musical instruments and more.
Cover limits do apply so it’s best to read the PDS in full to understand whether your items are covered.
How do I figure out how much my stuff is worth?
To get a quote you’ll need to tell us how much stuff you’re wanting to insure. There’s a couple of ways of doing this - if you’ve made that list of all your belongings and how much they cost, that’s one option. Another way is to use an online calculator like this one.
Does contents insurance cover everyone living in my house?
Contents insurance covers you and the items you can show that you own. If you’ve got a partner or family member you jointly own property with, you may be able to list them on your contents policy as well. If you’re renting a room in a shared house, your housemates’ belongings are their own responsibility.
Worth noting, to get Huddle’s Contents Cover there can’t be more than three unrelated people living at the insured address. So you may be eligible for cover with us if you’re living with your family, or in a shared house with up to two other housemates who aren’t related to you.
What about if my stuff is out and about?
Contents insurance usually only protects your stuff when it’s in your house. So if you’re out and about and your bag gets stolen - it’s not likely to be covered. Most insurance policies will let you add extra cover so that certain items are covered even if they’re outside of your house.
👋 Huddle Contents Insurance has a Portable valuables cover option, that lets you add cover for specified items that you might take out or away with you. This includes clothes, jewellery, sports gear and portable electronic devices. If something that’s included in your portable cover gets stolen or damaged while you’re outside your home you’ll be able to claim for it using your Contents Insurance policy.
Remember that cover limits apply so it’s best to read the PDS in full to understand whether your items are covered.
If you’ve realised how much your stuff is actually worth and think extra protection might be a good call, check out our Contents Insurance page to get more detail and a full list of benefits.
We hope you found this article useful. It’s important to remember that when looking at sports gear cover, there’s terms and conditions to consider so always make sure you take the time to get across the full rental terms so you know what happens if things were to go wrong.