Household contents insurance (2024)

FAQs

How can you determine how much home contents insurance you need? ›

Taking a full home inventory (including items kept in a storage facility) and maintaining a list of your possessions – especially the most valuable – is the best way to ensure your coverage limit accounts for your belongings. The sum of the value of all your items is how much coverage you need.

How much contents insurance do I need? To estimate the value of your contents, include everything in your house that isn't part of its structure. Your contents insurance should cover the full cost of replacing your personal belongings. Don't forget about things like appliances, family heirlooms, jewellery, and clothes.

Household contents cover

This type of insurance covers everything you have in your home, from appliances and furniture to clothing and pots.

When it comes to insuring your home, the 80% rule is an important guideline to keep in mind. This rule suggests you should insure your home for at least 80% of its total replacement cost to avoid penalties for being underinsured.

Whether you're a homeowner or a renter, contents insurance is one of the best ways to protect your belongings against loss or damage. But contents insurance doesn't just protect your things, contents cover comes with a range of additional benefits that protect the policy holder, which can come in handy for renters too.

The cost of home and contents insurance is on the rise due to high inflation and increasingly frequent natural disasters – such as bushfires, cyclones and floods – leaving those who do not shop around penalised for their loyalty.

Contents insurance is something both homeowners and renters may want to consider. According to MoneySmart, this protects the things you value in your home, specifically "household items and personal belongings if they're damaged, lost or stolen". This can include furniture, appliances, laptops, clothes and tools.

How does contents insurance work? If something goes wrong, like a burglary, leak or fire, you can make a claim to the insurer for any items that are damaged, lost or stolen. They'll then check if your situation is covered and work out how much money they'll give you.

These are things which are important to day to day living and you'll need to replace them just as much as larger items if a loss occurs. These days an average 3-4 bedroom house would more likely cost $150,000 to $200,000 to refill with all of the household items and personal effects!

What does contents insurance cover? ›

Contents insurance covers the cost of replacing or repairing your possessions if they are damaged, destroyed or stolen. It includes everything you would take with you if you moved home including your furniture, kitchen appliances, curtains, bedding, clothing, television, computing equipment and jewellery.

If you'd like an estimate of your weight-based moving cost before moving day arrives, your moving professional can provide you with a quote based on the average size of your home. For instance, the contents of a 2,800-square-foot, four-bedroom home usually weighs around 20,500 pounds.

Your contents cover does include kitchen appliances that are free standing, such as washing machines. But if your appliance is built in, it will be covered under your buildings insurance. There's no cover for your washing machine if it breaks down.

Most contents insurance policies will cover your mobile phone when it's in your home, just like other personal belongings or valuables. You'll be covered for loss or damage in a fire, storm or flood, and theft too, but only for the phone itself, and not any fraudulent calls.

With our Contents Insurance, we also spread that cover to include money, valuables, food in your freezer and home office equipment too. If you want to, you can also make sure you're covered for any accidents, with our optional accidental damage add-on.

When it comes to the value of specific items, condition is more important than age. An older item that's in excellent condition should be depreciated less than a newer item that's frequently used or one that's regularly exposed to water, sun, wind, etc.

The purpose of homeowners insurance is primarily to ensure that you can afford to replace your home if it's damaged or destroyed. In order to make sure you can replace your home in its entirety, Dave Ramsey recommends guaranteed replacement cost coverage.

Contents insurance, also called personal property insurance, provides coverage for your personal belongings up to your policy limits. Most home insurance policies include contents insurance at 50-70 percent of the dwelling coverage amount that's listed on your policy.