GIO Home and Contents Insurance PDS updates

At GIO, we always seek new ways to improve for our customers. That’s why we’ve updated the GIO Home and Contents Insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to incorporate more plain English principles (like more descriptive headings).

We’ve also adjusted the policy’s coverage. This involved changing or adding covers, limits, conditions and exclusions. We have listed some of these changes below. Know these changes relate to policies starting or renewing on or after 24 May 2025.

The information listed below is simply a summary and not an exhaustive list of all changes. You’ll notice that we will mention when a policy feature relates to either the home or contents portion of the PDS. We don’t cover all the changes in this summary, so, we strongly encourage you to read the PDS in full to understand your cover.

A PDS is an important legal document that covers the details of the cover you’ve purchased. As it’s a legal document, it’s important you read it carefully.

GIO is committed to ensuring its products are not used for any form of financial abuse. You’ll see we have made clear our position that the use of our products for financial abuse is unacceptable.

We know sometimes your circumstances might mean you need additional support or assistance in dealing with us. If you’re comfortable, you can tell us about your situation, and we’ll work with you to arrange support.

This section has changed. We’ll let you know when and how you need to pay your excess. Rest assured knowing we’ll always communicate when you need to pay any excess(es) to us. Alternatively, we’ll deduct the amount of any excess(es) from any cash payment we make.

There is no longer any scenario in which we will waive your excess.

There are a few changes to this section of the PDS. Previously, we didn’t cover any building or part of a building which is legally part of a strata title building according to the applicable strata laws in your state or territory.

Now, we don’t cover any building (or part of a building) that’s covered under an insurance policy taken out by any owners corporation or similar body and/or is required to be insured by any owners corporation or similar body under the strata or community title laws applicable to that state or territory. Strata Insurance may offer this kind of coverage.

To see what else has changed regarding what we do and don’t cover as the home, go to the ‘What and where we cover – the basics’ section starting on page 20 of the PDS.

We’ve updated the coverage for when contents are insured in a unit to include your household items permanently attached to the unit, like an air conditioner. That is unless the item(s) is covered under an insurance policy taken out by any owners corporation or similar body and/or is required to be insured by any owners corporation or similar body under the strata or community title laws applicable to that state or territory.

Make sure that your contents sum insured meets your needs by checking with your body corporate, owners corporation, or similar body what is and isn’t covered by the policy taken out by them.

This doesn’t include cover for items that are common property. Common property is any land or building (or any part of the building) at the insured address that is on a strata or community title which is required to be insured by the owners corporations or similar body under the relevant strata laws and/or is insured under an insurance policy taken out by them.

For example, if you have a bathtub which is permanently attached within your unit and the body corporate insures that item under their policy, it will not be covered for loss or damage under this policy.

Please make sure you read the ‘General exclusions’ section of your PDS. General exclusions also apply to legal liability, but this isn’t always the case. Your PDS will outline when a general exclusion also applies to legal liability.

We want to be clear about things we don’t cover for loss or damage under your policy. There are some new and updated exclusions in the ‘General exclusions’ section, such as:

building works (this used to be called building extensions, alterations or renovations)
hacking, cyber-attack, or cyber incident (this used to be called computer virus or computer hacking), and
rust or corrosion (this used to be part of wear, tear and gradual deterioration exclusion).

There are also new Legal Liability exclusions:

We don’t cover legal liability due to silica in any form. Please read the exclusion in full for more detail on page 38 of the PDS.

We don’t cover legal liability for or caused by, connected with, or arising from any battery driven or electric scooters, skateboards, e-bicycles, unicycles, hoverboards, one-wheels, or segways.

There are many changes to the Escape of liquid clause, and we strongly encourage you to read this section of your PDS in full.

These changes include providing cover for sudden and unexpected loss or damage to the home or contents caused by liquid escaping from a number of listed items.

We also now provide cover for loss or damage, caused by liquid escaping from the items listed in the PDS, that has occurred gradually when the loss or damage, that was occurring, wasn’t easily visible to a reasonable person in the circumstances.

There are also updates to things we don’t cover under Escape of liquid too. Please read the new PDS to see all of these changes, starting on page 47.

There are some changes to when and under what circumstances you’re covered for loss or damage caused by impact (or by power surge caused by impact).

You’re still covered for loss or damage caused by impact from a falling tree or part of a falling tree including the roots, except when the tree, a part of it, or its roots are being carried in or by water or water is causing them to move.

For example, impact isn’t covered if a fallen tree damages your home or contents while being carried in a river.

We also won’t cover loss or damage to the home or your contents if it’s caused by impact from any watercraft, aircraft, motor vehicles, or trailers that are stationary.

Please read the new PDS to see specifically what has changed.

There are additional covers that have been removed such as ‘Prevention of access when you have contents cover’ and ‘Contents on common property’. There are also changes to limits for some additional covers such as ‘Food and medication spoilage’. Please see all ‘Additional covers that come with your policy’ starting on page 53 for more information. The above and below are just a few examples of what’s changed.

In our previous PDS, we had ‘Other repair/rebuilding costs’ and ‘Removal of debris’ as separate covers. We’ve combined them into one additional cover.

Now, on eligible claims, the most we’ll pay for any one incident is up to 15% of the home sum insured for Classic cover, 20% for Classic Extras and up to 25% of the home sum insured for Platinum cover.

The combined additional cover ‘Emergency repairs and other repair/rebuilding costs’ provides cover for make safe, and other repair/rebuilding costs (like architects’ fees, and removal of debris that has damaged the home, when that damage is covered and removal of the debris is necessary to repair the damage). Read the PDS for more details on this cover.

There are changes to the additional cover ‘Temporary accommodation when you have home cover’. This includes an extension of temporary accommodation beyond the current limit if there are delays to the repair or rebuild of your home that are outside of your control when a builder we have engaged is undertaking the repairs or rebuild. This can include but isn’t limited to delays because of labour or material shortages.

Please see the PDS for more information on what this specifically means including limits, conditions and exclusions that apply.

We no longer offer Domestic workers compensation.

We have removed the lifetime guarantee on authorised repairs from the PDS and now follow the General Insurance (GI) Code of Practice.

This code, which commenced on 1 July 2021, provides universal benchmarks to adhere by. For example, if we have selected and directly authorised a repairer to repair your damaged property, then we will accept responsibility for the quality of their work and the materials they use, based on the standards outlined in this code.

Some terms and words in the policy have a special meaning (definition) which applies to them.

It’s important to read this section of the PDS because it gives the meaning which applies to those terms and words which can impact how your policy is interpreted.

There are new definitions in your PDS, including changes to existing ones such as:

We’ve updated this definition to mean sudden loss or damage that you didn’t intend or expect to happen.

We’ve updated this to mean land or building (or any part of the building) on strata title or community title at the insured address which is required to be insured by the owners corporation or similar body under the relevant strata laws and/or is insured under an insurance policy taken out by the owners corporation or similar body.

For example, common property in a multi-dwelling development.

This refers to the timeframe from when the construction of a new building at the insured address begins until the time the building is ready to be moved into, electricity and water services are connected and there is no outstanding work or the only remaining work to be done is installation of floor coverings, internal painting or installation of light fittings.

This means physical damage, unless stated otherwise in your policy.

This term means a standalone wall that isn’t connected at either end to a building or other structure, and not restrained along the top, like a brick fence.