The financial benefit of having home and contents insurance

Life's uncertainties can leave your home vulnerable to unexpected expenses if your home is damaged. And the last thing you want is to face additional financial burdens that may have been covered under insurance if you were to lodge a claim.

Knowing some of the more costly expenses you may have to pay if your home was damaged may help you to better understand how insurance may help to cover these expenses. Consider if you have insurance that is right for you and meets your needs.

Explore Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance

Roof damage

Your roof keeps the outside, outside. But heavy storms and fierce winds can mean your roof can suffer damage that can range from loose tiles to complete structural destruction.

As long as your roof is in good condition and is well maintained, and you meet the other conditions of your policy, and your claim is accepted, we’ll help cover the costs of repairing or replacing any damage to your roof that was caused by an insured event, provided of course that damage is not otherwise excluded from cover under your policy . Read the PDS for the full terms, exclusions and conditions.

Accommodation costs

Sometimes after an unfortunate event like a major storm, flood or fire your home may be temporarily unliveable. In times like those, finding alternative accommodation can be financially (not to mention emotionally) stressful, especially if the repairs will take months.

However, with Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance, you won’t have to shoulder this financial burden alone. If your home is damaged by an insured event like fire, flood or storm¹ to the point it cannot be lived in, we’ll pay your reasonable and necessary temporary accommodation costs. This is for the time it will take to repair or rebuild your home so that it can be lived in again. For any one incident the most we will pay is up to 10%-15% of your sum insured depending on your level of cover.

This means, subject to this limit, we’ll pay your reasonable and necessary costs for:

• short-term accommodation agreed to by us, like a hotel, for up to four weeks, and then;
• residential accommodation that is of a similar standard to the insured home. That means if your insured address has three bedrooms, we’ll aim to put you in a three-bedroom home.

We’ll also pay the reasonable and necessary costs for:

• mail redirection from the insured address,
• utility connection at the temporary accommodation residence,
• relocation of your contents to and from the temporary accommodation if you have contents cover with your home policy,
• bond payment assistance if required, which is recoverable by us and which may be deducted from any amount payable to you, and
• if applicable, break-lease fees for early termination of a lease for your temporary accommodation if you’re able to return to your home before the end of the rental agreement.

Check out the PDS for a full list of details of the limits, terms and exclusions.

Kitchen cabinetry and benchtops

If a kitchen pipe bursts, this can put the whole house on hold. Escape of liquid events like this can lead to water-soaked wood, warped surfaces, and deteriorated benchtops. The costs of replacing or repairing water-damaged cabinetry can quickly add up, leaving you in a financial bind.

Luckily, Suncorp Home Building Insurance provides cover for loss or damage to your home caused by certain water leaks, under the insured event ‘escape of liquid’, but this cover is subject to exclusions so please read the PDS for full details of the terms, conditions and exclusions. We don’t cover damage caused by general wear and tear or maintenance issues, so be sure to check your fittings often and keep on top of any home maintenance jobs to avoid any inconvenient claims down the line!

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Glass doors and windows

Glass doors and windows can be a real focal point in your home. But due to being glass – that is, notoriously fragile – a flyaway footy or even just a clumsy stumble can result in costly damage.

With Suncorp Home Building Insurance, we’ll cover accidental breakage of fixed glass in your windows and doors if the breakage extends through the entire thickness of the glass. Plus, with our optional Excess-Free Glass cover, which you can add to your Classic, Classic Extras or Classic Advantages policy for an extra premium, you won’t need to pay an excess if your claim is only for accidental breakage of the fixed glass in your windows and doors.

For full details, limits and exclusions be sure to read the PDS.

Explore Excess-Free Glass cover

Make a claim

If you’ve got Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance and have been impacted by an insured event, making a claim is easy! You can do it online or through the Suncorp Insurance App.

All you need is:

• your Suncorp policy number,
• details about when the event occurred and what happened,
• details of what has been affected and the make and model of any damaged contents items, and
• police report details if applicable and requested by us.

We will let you know if we need any additional information to assess your claim.

Make a claim

Read more:

• How to protect your home from extreme weather
• A guide to unoccupied home insurance
• How home maintenance can help reduce the risk of insurance claims being denied

¹ Please note we do not insure you for bushfire, storm, storm surge, flood or tsunami in the first 72 hours of your policy. Very limited exceptions apply. For full details read the relevant PDS.

Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as Suncorp Insurance. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement before making a decision about this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available. This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.