Accidental damage insurance explained
- If your home insurance includes cover for accidental damage, it can cover unforeseen mishaps around the home that can occur in everyday life
- It can be included as standard, or as an optional extra that can be added to your home and/or contents insurance policy
- Accidental damage to carpets, furniture, kitchen appliances, TVs and more could be covered with an accidental damage option
No matter how careful we are, accidents can still happen around the home. While standard home and contents insurance can cover you for damage from events like storm damage, burst pipes, and fallen trees, accidental damage insurance can cover you for things like red wine spills, laptop drops, or children's toys thrown through TV screens.
If your policy doesn’t include accidental damage cover as standard, you can add it to your home and contents policy to protect you from those mishaps.
Here we answer some questions to help you understand this handy coverage option.
Does home insurance cover accidental damage?
In most cases home insurance won’t include accidental damage as a standard part of your cover. So, it’s important to read your policy documentation, including your product disclosure statement (PDS), to find out the specifics of your policy.
Many insurers, including QBE, offer accidental damage cover as an optional extra to complement your home insurance.
Who is accidental damage designed for?
It could be particularly useful for people with kids, as they can be more prone to accidents that cause damage to a home and its belongings. But mishaps can happen no matter how careful we are, so if you have home and or contents insurance, it could be worth considering upgrading your policy to include accidental damage.
What does accidental damage insurance cover?
Accidental damage insurance can cover accidents that happen in everyday life. Here are a few scenarios where your home and belongings could be protected under QBE’s Accidental Damage option.
- Thanks to an indoor ball game, your TV screen is smashed
- The kids decide the toilet is a great hiding spot for your mobile phone
- While taking in the morning news, you spill your coffee on your personal laptop
QBE’s Accidental Damage option won’t cover damage to belongings that are used for earning income. Here are a few examples where your belongings typically wouldn’t be covered under QBE’s Accidental Damage.
- Your business laptop falls from the kitchen bench leaving its screen smashed and keyboard broken
- While riding his bike, your son crashes into the back fence, damaging the bike’s wheels
- When flying your drone, you accidently crash it into a brick wall shattering it
Regardless of the insurer you choose, it’s important to read any relevant policy documentation and the PDS to understand exactly what’s included and excluded from the policy.
Is it worth getting accidental damage cover with your home insurance?
Accidents can cause expensive damage to your valuable contents like TVs, laptops, carpets and furniture. So, it’s worth weighing up the likelihood of unexpected mishaps and the value of your contents.
It’s also important to think about other considerations like your basic excess. To get started, try this handy contents calculator to estimate the value of your belongings.
Related article: How to insure your engagement ring
How does accidental damage cover work?
Let’s say you’re painting a feature wall in your lounge room. As you come down the ladder, you accidentally knock the open tin of paint all over your carpet. The carpet is damaged beyond repair. And, as the carpet extends into the dining room, this needs to be replaced too.
The good news is, you have QBE Home Insurance with an Accidental Damage option. Your contents sum insured is $70,000 with a basic excess of $500.
In this instance, QBE would pay the cost to replace the carpet in both the lounge and dining room (given the dimensions, they are considered as one room).
The cost of replacing the carpet is $7,000. After you pay your basic excess of $500, QBE would cover the remaining balance of $6,500.
What does it cost?
In most cases, you can add Accidental Damage cover for an extra premium. The cost can depend on many factors, such as information about your home, the sum insured of your contents, who lives in your home, and the basic excess you’ve selected.
To find out how much it could cost, get a QBE Home Insurance quote today.
