Home and contents insurance

What’s covered depends on the type of home insurance you have and your specific policy. Most standard home and contents insurance policies can cover loss or damage of your belongings as well as your home in the event that something goes wrong like:

• Fire
• Flood
• Storm
• Theft
• Vandalism
• Water damage
• Glass breakage.

In many cases, you can also add optional extras to your home insurance policy to provide additional coverage. This includes things like portable contents insurance (to cover your valuables when you’re away from home) and accidental damage.

Home insurance can cover your building, contents or both.

Home insurance for your building can provide cover for the cost of replacing or repairing your house, and home insurance for your contents can provide cover for the cost of replacing or repairing your belongings, due to loss or damage caused by things like fire, theft and storm.

When you choose a home insurance policy, you and your insurance provider agree on your policy’s coverage, conditions and premium.

The cost of home and contents insurance can depend on a number of factors, such as:

• How much cover you choose (sometimes called your ‘sum insured’)
• Whether you decide to add any optional cover, such as accidental damage or cover for portable valuables
• The basic excess you choose (the amount of money you may need to contribute towards the cost of a claim)
• Your claims history
• The location of your insured property
• Characteristics of your home
• Your payment frequency.

Read more about premiums, excesses and claims in the relevant Additional Information Guide.

The easy way to compare home insurance and see how much it may cost you is to get a quote.

With QBE Home Insurance, carpets and internal blinds are insured under contents cover.

QBE Home Insurance can provide cover for loss of or damage to your buildings and/or contents caused by events like fire, theft, flood and more. You can upgrade your policy to include accidental damage cover for an extra premium.

To insure a contents item for an amount higher than the standard policy limit, you need to ask us to list it on your policy as ‘specified contents’. If we agree to list the item, an extra premium may apply for certain things such as jewellery. Cover is provided for contents and ‘specified contents’ when they are at your home address.

If you have contents cover and own a portable item that you would like to insure away from your home, you can select the Portable Contents option for an additional premium. You can select the cover by choosing certain categories of items with a category limit, or you can list a specific item. If we agree to list a specific item, it will be shown as a ‘specified portable contents’ item on your Certificate of Insurance.

We’ll usually need valuations, receipts or serial numbers as proof of ownership in the event of a claim. To find more information about the limits that apply to the policy, refer to your Certificate of Insurance and the relevant PDS.

Not with QBE Home Insurance. To insure your personal valuables away from home, you’ll need to add the Portable Contents option for an extra premium. When you add portable contents cover to a home insurance policy, cover is provided for the items you have selected anywhere in Australia and New Zealand, and for up to 90 consecutive days anywhere else in the world.

Yes, our home insurance policies provide cover for loss or damage caused by flood. For further details, refer to your PDS.

Yes please. You must tell us if your home will be unoccupied for more than 90 consecutive days.

Other conditions may apply and you’ll find more information about unoccupied properties in your Certificate of Insurance and the PDS.

A certificate of currency is a document issued by QBE providing evidence of a current insurance policy. It includes details such as the name of the insured(s), the start and end date of the current policy term and the type of cover. Request a copy online or call us on 133 723.

Note: A certificate of currency does not contain premium or payment information.

If you have buildings cover, QBE Home Insurance provides cover for removal of debris as part of your buildings sum insured if we need to repair, replace or rebuild your home. You need to make sure you’ve allowed for this cost when setting your buildings sum insured.

You can use the buildings and contents insurance calculators to help you get an estimated replacement value of your home and its contents.

The Buildings Sum Insured Safeguard benefit is like a safety net. It’s designed to help protect against underinsuring your buildings. Your Certificate of Insurance will confirm if your policy includes the safeguard benefit.

If it does and we accept a claim that exceeds your buildings sum insured, we can pay up to 30% more than the buildings sum insured shown on your Certificate of Insurance.

Head to our home insurance claims page to make a claim online or call us 24 hours a day on 133 723.