Home Insurance covers your home, garages, carports, outbuildings, gates and fences, along with any permanently attached fixtures like solar panels, walls, ceilings, and floor coverings at the insured address for loss or damage caused by a range of insured events, including flood, fire, storm and burglary or theft.

Comparing Home and Contents Insurance is a good way to ensure you get an appropriate level of cover. What’s appropriate for you should be based on what you need cover for: home, contents, combined home and contents, strata, landlord – each of us has different needs. When comparing Home and Contents Insurance, you can:

Contents are your household items that you own or are responsible for and use primarily for domestic purposes. Contents are items not permanently attached to your home or insured address (e.g. a unit you own and live in). Your contents can include, but are not limited to:

Damage to carpets is covered under your Contents Insurance policy.

Underinsurance may expose you to serious financial loss if a claim occurs. It is your responsibility to make sure your home and contents are insured for their full 'new for old' replacement value. 'New for old' means that if your home is damaged, or your contents are damaged beyond repair or stolen, you will be able to replace or repair your home or contents with new items or new materials regardless of age.

Safety Net Home Protection – included in GIO Classic Extras and Platinum cover – provides a financial buffer if the cost of repairing or rebuilding exceeds your sum insured (i.e. the amount you insured your home for) due to an unexpected building price surge. For example:

Pets are not automatically covered. However, when you insure your home contents with GIO, we offer ‘Injury to pet dogs and cats’ as an optional cover for an additional cost.

A premium is the amount you pay for your insurance and it’s calculated based on your sum insured (the amount you insure your home and/or contents for) along with many other factors including information about you, your home, and its contents. Collectively, these are called premium factors. We use these premium factors to reflect the likelihood of you making a claim. We also consider other factors such as the cost of claims we’ve paid to other customers and claims we expect to pay in the future, changes in taxes, duties or levies, along with our cost of doing business.

Strata Insurance provides cover for residential strata titled properties or residential properties associated with a body corporate or owners corporation. Strata Insurance may provide cover to buildings and common areas that are the responsibility of the body corporate or owners corporation for insurance purposes according to the relevant legislation in your state. You may also choose to cover any common contents under this insurance. Strata Insurance is designed for properties like a duplex, a townhouse, a unit, or a flat that shares land, walls, access, or common areas with another property.

Learn more about Strata Insurance.

Common contents, which are covered under Strata Insurance, means your unfixed property that is contained within the common areas of your building – such as appliances, equipment, furniture, fittings and works of art.

If you are using your house or spare room for short term rentals through Airbnb or a similar service, and would like to enquire about insurance, please call us on 13 10 10 for further information.

If you have a holiday house that is only for your personal use and that is unoccupied for much of the time you can still insure your property with GIO Home and Contents Insurance, but you will likely be required to pay an unoccupied excess in the event of a claim.

If you have experienced an insured event, you can follow these five steps towards making a claim with GIO.

1. Make sure everyone is safe. For emergencies, call 000.
2. Try to prevent further loss or damage. If possible, take reasonable steps to prevent further loss, damage, or liability. For example, if there is a hole in the roof, arrange for it to be covered to prevent further water damage from the rain.

You need to contact us if you’re commencing building works or renovations at your home, or if you intend to demolish your home.

GIO does not provide cover for any new buildings during construction. Home and Contents Insurance policies are applicable for completed buildings being used for domestic purposes; that is, once they’re being lived in.

If you are renovating your home or unit, we will not cover any damage or loss that is caused by, arises from or involves those building extensions, alterations or renovations. In particular, we don’t cover: