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:

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:

GIO Home and Contents Insurance does not cover loss or damage caused by insects, vermin or rodents—including termites.

For more information, please check the Product Disclosure Statement.

There are a few reasons your belongings may be damaged or lost while you're away from home. If you're moving to a permanent new address, for example, and your contents are damaged or lost during transit within Australia, you'll be covered under GIO Contents Insurance for events such as fire, flood or theft of the vehicle carrying them. This also applies to contents in commercial storage, or contents that are temporarily removed from your property for up to 180 days.

Carpet is covered under GIO Contents Insurance, however it is not covered under GIO Home Building Insurance.

If you’ve experienced an insured event and are subsequently lodging a claim for repair or replacement of damaged property or contents, we will arrange that repair or replacement via our repairer or supplier. We may ask you to provide a quote, depending on the situation.

Yes, you may require both landlord insurance and strata insurance.

No, there is no legal requirement for you to have landlord insurance. However, if you take out a loan to pay for your investment property, taking out landlord insurance may be a requirement of that loan.  

Yes, you can get a landlord insurance policy regardless of whether or not you manage your investment property yourself. 

Yes, the cover is no longer valid when the landlord takes up permanent residence at the insured property. The landlord or property manager should advise us if this occurs.

Cover can be started at any time (but cannot be backdated). If you have just purchased a property, the best time to start is straight away – especially if the property is vacant and being advertised for rent. As a landlord, you have a liability exposure from the moment you or your agent begins showing potential tenants through the property.

It’s recommended that you have a written periodic rental tenancy agreement, or evidence of a contract being in place with your tenant, if you wish to be able to lodge a claim for loss of rent by tenant default. If you lodge a claim but can’t present this evidence, we will review the information you have provided and confirm coverage.

While home insurance and landlord insurance may sound like the same thing, they are classed differently because, as a landlord, you receive an income through rent. While both types of insurance cover damage to the building, your home insurance may not cover you if the property is let out to tenants. You should consult your PDS to confirm that you know exactly what you’re covered for. Please contact us if you’re unsure. 

Assuming that items are damaged in an insured event and they’re included in your coverage, those items may be repaired or replaced.

We will replace your items via our supplier, based on what is currently available in the market, provided we have the necessary evidence to confirm the damage or loss. We’ll replace the item with one of the same type, standard and specification, but not necessarily the same brand or model.