What home insurance covers

‘Home insurance’ is an umbrella term that encompasses three variations of cover:

• Home and contents insurance covers your house and other structures on your property as well as your belongings for loss or damage due to events like fire, theft and storms.
• Home Building insurance covers your house and other structures on your property, including your garden shed, fences, and in-ground swimming pool.
• Contents insurance covers the belongings inside your home, including furniture, whitegoods, electrical appliances, clothing, and more.

Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply to Budget Direct home insurance; for full details, please read the product disclosure statement.

Yes – your Budget Direct-insured home and/or contents are covered for damage or loss due to violent winds, lightning, rain, hail and snow.

This cover includes the escape of rainwater from any water pipe, drain or gutter; and surface run-off of rainwater from surrounding areas that occurs within 24 hours of the storm or heavy rain.

To insure your home against floods, you need to take out optional Flood Cover.

An uninsured period may apply, please refer to the PDS for terms and conditions

Yes – Budget Direct home and/or contents insurance covers escape of liquid in the home, including water damage caused by burst or leaking water pipes and overflowing sinks, basins, baths and appliances.

Note that we do not cover damage caused by leaks in shower walls and bases resulting from normal wear and tear to tile grout and silicone joints, for example.

That’s because these leaks are considered preventable through periodic maintenance and repairs.

We will pay reasonable costs to investigate the escape of liquid if it is causing damage to your home or contents.

Your home and/or contents can be covered for floods if you take out Budget Direct’s optional ‘Flood Cover’.

This cover protects you against loss or damage caused by Flood. Flood is defined as the covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the normal confines of:

• A lake, river, creek, or other natural watercourse (whether or not any of them have been altered or modified)
• A reservoir, canal or dam

You can apply to add Flood Cover to your home and/or contents insurance policy when you get a quote and buy insurance or – if you’ve already bought cover – by calling us on 1800 182 310 or logging into your online account and editing your policy.

If you meet our underwriting criteria, we’ll approve your application.

Note that your Flood Cover will take effect 72 hours of when you first purchase optional flood cover, unless the policy:

• Commenced immediately after another policy covering the same risks expired, without a break in cover
• Commenced on the same day you bought your home or moved to a new address.

Yes – Budget Direct home and/or contents insurance covers loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft at the insured address, as long as you report the incident to police.

Please note:

• We’ll cover thefts from common areas, garages, car parks and storage areas of apartments, flats, units, townhouses and other multi-occupancy dwellings only if there is evidence of forced entry.
• The most we’ll pay for contents stolen in the open air at an insured address is $1,000.
• If you’re a landlord and would like to be covered for theft by your tenant (or their visitors), you’ll need to add optional ‘Theft and Malicious Damage by Tenants’ to your policy.

Budget Direct home insurance includes accidental breakage of:

• fixed glass (e.g. glass windows and doors)
• ceramic fixtures (e.g. cooktops and oven doors)
• sanitary fixtures (e.g. basins, baths and toilets).

Our contents insurance includes accidental breakage of fixed glass in:

• furniture
• pictures
• mirrors.

You can extend this cover by adding optional ‘Accidental Damage’ cover to your policy (some exclusions apply – for details, please read the product disclosure statement).

You can do this when you get a quote and buy a policy or – if you’ve already bought one – by calling us on 1800 182 310 or logging into your online account and editing your policy.

It’s important you insure your home and contents for their total replacement cost.

This reduces the risk of underinsurance — the shortfall between the cost to rebuild a home or buy new contents and the amount they’re insured for.

If you’re uncertain how much to insure your home and/or contents for, you can use our home insurance calculator and/or our contents insurance calculator to estimate the cost to replace them.

For extra peace of mind, you can add optional Sum Insured Safeguard cover to your home-building insurance policy.

If you have this cover and the cost to repair or replace your home exceeds your sum insured, we’ll increase it by up to 25% (e.g. from $400,000 to $500,000).

Yes – if an insured event causes damage to your home that makes your home unliveable, we can cover reasonable costs for temporary accommodation for your family and household pets while your home is being repaired – up to 10% of your sum insured, up to 12 months.

This benefit also applies if loss or damage to your contents due to an insured event makes your home unliveable.

We’ll pay the cost of temporary accommodation in addition to your total sum insured

If a tree falls on and damages your house, Budget Direct can pay the reasonable costs to remove the tree before the repairs start. 

There are some circumstances in which we won’t cover tree damage or removal, namely:

• cost of removing or disposing of tree stumps, or branches of trees that have not damaged your home 
• loss or damage caused by lopping or felling of trees when this is performed or authorised by you, your family, or a household member, unless completed by a professional tree removal business   
• loss or damage caused by the roots of trees, plants, shrubs, or hedges.

Yes, If you have contents insurance and your home becomes unliveable as a result of an insured event at the insured address and we agree to pay your claim we’ll cover the costs of reasonable and appropriate storage for your contents in a commercial storage facility, provided they:

• Cannot reasonably be stored at your temporary accommodation
• Cannot remain in the home.

Budget Direct can cover roof leaks caused by one of our 10 insured events.

For example, if a hail storm damages your home’s roof and causes it to leak, we may pay to repair the roof as well as any water-damaged parts of your home or contents. 

However, we won’t cover any loss or damage caused by rain, hail, wind, snow or dust due to:

• An opening that wasn’t created by the storm (or any other insured event)
• Defects in the design, structure, materials, workmanship or construction (that you knew about, or should have reasonably known about)
• Rain entering the building due to construction or alteration
• The home not being in good condition, including guttering and drain pipes.

Put simply, if your home is not in good condition at the time of the loss, or if you haven’t fully fixed any faults or damage to your home or contents that you should have reasonably been aware of, damage from an insured event could be worse than if you had fixed it. This may affect your cover.

Yes – Budget Direct home insurance covers loss or damage to your gates and up to 500m for domestic fences.

Yes, Budget Direct home insurance covers loss or damage to your garage or carport due to an insured event.

This includes events like:

• Impact at the home, for example, a tree falling on your garage during a storm

You should include domestic garages and sheds in your building sum insured amount.

Yes, Budget Direct home insurance can cover your swimming pool.

Home Building Insurance covers fixed swimming pools, spas, and saunas that are permanent fixtures at your insured address, including their accessories.

Contents Insurance covers above-ground or inflatable swimming pools and portable spas, including their accessories.

There is no cover for the water, the liner or the cover of a swimming pool or spa.

Budget Direct considers solar panels that are permanently fixed to your residential building to be a part of the home.

As such, our Home Insurance covers loss or damage to solar panels due to an insured event (e.g. a hailstorm, fire).

If you have solar panels on your home, don’t forget to include them when calculating the cost to replace your home if it’s totally destroyed, for example, by fire.

If you’ve had solar panels installed recently, review your Building sum insured and update it, if required (subject to our acceptance of the new ‘sum insured’). 

You can do this at any time by contacting us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.

We have a Building sum insured calculator to assist you in determining your sum insured. 

Yes, Budget Direct home insurance covers air-conditioners for loss or damage from one of the 10 insured events.

We cover fixed air-conditioners under Building Insurance and portable air-conditioners under Contents Insurance. 

Budget Direct also offers optional cover for Motor Burnout.

Yes – Budget Direct contents insurance covers valuables like jewellery, watches, memorabilia, and stamps at the insured address. 

Note that there are limits on the amount we’ll pay to replace certain contents.

If you want to insure an item for more than the standard limit, you can specify, or list, the item on your policy. You can do this by:

• Adding it when you get a quote and buy a new policy
• Calling us on 1800 182 310 if you already have a policy
• Logging into your online account and editing your policy                   

Yes – Budget Direct contents insurance covers gadgets like mobile phones, laptops and computer tablets for loss or damage inside your home due to an insured event.

This includes events like theft and fire but excludes accidental damage (e.g. due to you unintentionally dropping a gadget on the floor at home).

This is unless you’ve added optional Accidental Damage cover to your policy, which covers accidentally damaged laptops and computer tablets (but not mobile phones).

If you insure your mobile phone, laptop or tablets under optional specified personal effects, they will be covered for accidental loss or damage during the period of insurance:

• anywhere in Australia and New Zealand
• anywhere else in the world for up to 90 days of your departure from Australia.

Budget Direct home insurance can cover your investment property against loss or damage from our 10 insured events.

When you insure the building, your policy also includes:

• Loss of Net Rental Income: Up to 10% of your home sum insured, if your property becomes unliveable due to an insured event.
• Landlord's Contents: Limited cover for items like floor coverings, internal window coverings, and light fittings, up to 5% of your home sum insured.

Optional Landlord Covers (additional premium and underwriting eligibility applies):

Enhance your protection by adding:

• Tenant Default: Covers situations where your tenant fails to pay rent.
• Tenant Theft and Malicious Damage: Covers theft and malicious damage by your tenants and their visitors. Fires maliciously lit by your tenant are covered up to your home's sum insured. For other covered theft and malicious damage by your tenant, we pay up to $150,000 for the home building and up to $20,000 for contents.

Learn more about landlord insurance

"Yes – If you have told us that your are a landlord,  Budget Direct home insurance can cover lost rental income:  

Loss due to an Insured Event: If your investment property becomes unliveable due to one of our 10 insured events, your policy includes cover for the loss of net rental income. This is up to 10% of your home sum insured, provided a signed lease agreement was in place for at least four weeks before the loss.

Tenant Default (Optional Cover): For an additional premium, you can add this optional cover. It protects you if your tenant fails to pay rent. Upon a successful claim, we will pay up to the amount on your Insurance Certificate, less applicable excesses. This cover requires a signed lease agreement and that you have collected at least four consecutive weeks of rent from the tenant.

Yes – Budget Direct home and/or contents insurance includes legal liability cover (also known as legal liability cover).

This can cover your legal liability for death or physical injury to other people, or for loss or damage to other people's property caused by an accident at the insured address (Home Insurance) or anywhere in Australia (Contents Insurance).

Also, let us know if you expect to incur legal costs, where it’s possible for you to do so. If we accept your claim, we will cover the applicable legal costs that have been incurred (provided you’ve obtained our consent).

The most we'll pay for all liability claims (including legal costs) arising from any one accident is $20 million (including GST), less any applicable excess.

Budget Direct covers loss or damage to your home and/or contents if your home is unoccupied or vacant up to a maximum of 180 consecutive days, subject to the policy terms and conditions.

When your home is unoccupied for more than 60 consecutive days, the following security and safekeeping conditions apply:

• Your home must be secure, all windows and doors locked, and security devices activated.

• Gardens and lawns must be tidy, and your mail, newspapers and deliveries collected.

• You must arrange for someone to check inside and outside your home regularly.

If you do not comply with these conditions, we may (where permitted by law):

• Refuse to pay a claim

• Reduce the amount we pay for a claim

• Cancel your policy

When your home is unoccupied for more than 60 consecutive days, and you make a claim, an additional $1,000 excess will apply.

We will not provide any cover under the policy while your home is unoccupied if your home has been unoccupied for more than 180 days.

Budget Direct home and/or contents insurance covers some of the costs arising from personal injuries and death, under specific circumstances. If we accept your claim, we’ll also cover the applicable legal costs. Just let us know if you expect to incur legal costs (where possible).

If you are injured or die

We may pay for modifications to your home – up to $5,000 – if you suffer permanent paraplegia or quadriplegia as a direct result of an insured event at your home.

We may pay for your funeral expenses – up to $7,000 – if you are injured by an insured event at your home and die within 90 days of it.

If someone else is injured or dies

We may cover your legal liability – up to $20 million – for someone else’s accidental death or injury at the insured address (home insurance) or anywhere in Australia (contents insurance).

Note that this legal liability cover does not include:

• Injuries sustained during renovations valued at more than $50,000
• Deaths or injuries to you or your family members (but does include deaths or injuries to domestic boarders or tenants in your home).

Yes – Budget Direct contents insurance covers food spoilage caused by an insured event.

However, to be covered for food spoilage resulting from a burnt-out fridge or freezer motor, you'll need to add optional Motor Burnout cover to your policy. 

You don’t have to pay an excess if you claim for spoiled food only.

If the renovations increase the replacement cost of your home, you should review the amount your home is insured for – the ‘sum insured’.

You must tell us as soon as possible if your renovations involve:

• Removing the roof or external walls
• Building-in under your home
• Raising your home
• Removing or replacing stumps

You can increase your sum insured at any time by contacting us or logging into your online account and editing your policy.

If Budget Direct accepts your claim and, in the course of repairing your home, we discover it contains asbestos, we can pay to have it safely removed. 

We will only remove the asbestos that is part of the damaged area being repaired.

Otherwise, we do not cover any loss, damage or legal liability you incur due to any asbestos at the insured address.

If you find out asbestos is present in any part of the roof materials you must tell us as soon as possible.

Budget Direct home and contents insurance covers 10 insured events, including fire, malicious damage and vandalism. 

These include acts like arson, whereby a person intentionally damages your property by setting it on fire.

You must report the arson to the police as soon as possible, before lodging a claim with us.

If you’re a landlord and you want your property to be covered for a fire intentionally lit by your tenant, you must add optional ‘Theft and malicious damage by tenants and their visitors’ to your policy.

Budget Direct does not cover any loss, damage or legal liability a policyholder incurs if they or someone with their knowledge and permission commits or attempts to commit a crime, including arson.

When your policy renews, Budget Direct automatically increases your home and contents sums insured. This helps keep pace with rising costs.

This means your premium will be higher for the increased cover. You can decline the higher sum insured, and your premium will be adjusted accordingly.

What's not automatically increased: We do not automatically increase the sums insured for your listed or specified contents and personal effects. For these items, we recommend you have them valued regularly by a qualified professional to ensure they are adequately covered. 

It is your responsibility to ensure that your sums insured are adequate. To help estimate your sum insured, calculators are available here