Home insurance claims: Repair or replace?

GIO’s Home and Contents Insurance can help you worry a little less about your house and belongings. If your home or contents are damaged in an incident covered by your policy, GIO will either repair, replace or rebuild the item, or we may pay you, depending on the circumstances.

Repair or replace: How we settle your claim

When you lodge a claim for an insured event that’s covered under your insurance policy and we accept it, we will discuss with you the options for how we will settle your claim.

For home claims, when your claim for loss or damage to the home is covered, we’ll generally engage a builder from our supplier network to prepare a scope of works and provide a quote on the cost to replace any damaged component or part of the home or to repair or rebuild the home on a ‘new for old’ basis.

This will determine how the home claim can be settled. Often, we can repair or rebuild the home. When one of our builders or suppliers is directly selected and engaged by us to repair or rebuild your home, we guarantee the quality of the workmanship for all authorised repairs. If we can’t repair or rebuild, we will offer to pay you for the repair or rebuild on a ‘new for old’ basis, using a quote and scope of works from your builder, that we then assess.

If you’d prefer to use your own builder, you will be paid the amount of an assessed quote from a builder from our supplier network to repair or rebuild on a ‘new for old’ basis. The repairs will then be your responsibility, and we do not provide a guarantee on the workmanship of the repairs you arrange.

For contents claims, when your claim for loss, theft, or damage to your contents is covered, we’ll aim to use a member of our supplier network to repair or replace the damaged contents. However, if that’s not possible, we’ll settle your claim by paying you.

How To Make A Claim

When will GIO, repair, rebuild, replace or pay?

For damage to your home, often we will repair the damage.

If the assessed quote to repair is more than the cost of replacement, we will offer to rebuild your home on a ‘new for old’ basis instead.

When we can’t repair or rebuild, or you don’t want to proceed with our repairer, we will pay you.

For contents, we will often repair items like jewellery that can’t be easily replaced.

For other contents, whether we repair, replace or pay you will depend on the circumstances. If the contents can’t be repaired, we will offer a replacement on a ‘new for old’ basis sourced through our supplier network.

If you do not accept our offer, or we can’t source a replacement, we will pay you.

GIO may also offer a cash settlement if the item is shared with a neighbour, such as a fence.

What if an item can’t be repaired or replaced on a ‘new for old’ basis?

For items such as artwork, ornaments, collections, sets and memorabilia, and antiques (but not jewellery) which can’t be repairs or replaced on a ‘new for old’ basis, ‘new for old’ replacement means that if the item can’t be replaced ‘new for old’ or repaired, we’ll pay you what it would have cost to buy the item immediately before the loss or damage occurred, up to the relevant limit in your policy. We may engage an expert to help determine this.

The best way to understand what is and isn’t covered by GIO Home and Contents Insurance and for more information about how we settle home and contents claims, is to read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).

Read more:

• 4 ways to reduce your Home Insurance premium
• How much should you be paying on your home insurance?
• What does GIO Home and Contents Insurance cover?

Insurance issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as GIO. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance. Target Market Determination is also available.

This article 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.