Home insurance with flood cover
Some home insurers include flood cover as standard, while others sell it as an optional extra. Check before you buy.
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Finder Score - Home insurance
We crunch eligible home insurance products in Australia to see how they stack up. We rank over 50 products on 16 different features, including price. We end up with a single score out of 10 that helps you compare home insurance a bit faster. We assess home and contents, building only and contents only products individually.
Key takeaways
- Some home insurers include flood cover as standard, while others sell it as an optional extra. Check before you buy.
- Be aware of a common 72-hour waiting period before flood cover activates.
- Flood cover is usually worthwhile, particularly for properties in flood prone areas.
Does home insurance cover flood damage?
Most home insurance will include cover for floods, or at the very least, have an option to add it on to your cover for an additional fee. This is typically the case for both home insurance policies and contents insurance policies.
Keep in mind, there is a waiting period that applies before your coverage for flood will be in effect. This is different between insurers but it's usually a few days and will be outlined in your product disclosure statement (PDS), which would have been emailed to you at the time you took out your policy.
How is 'flood' defined?
Floods (water that escapes from its natural confinements)
For example, if a lake, creek, dam or river bursts its banks and it damages your home or contents, insurance can cover you.
Rainwater run-off
Rainwater run-off is not a flood under the standard definition. It's usually handled under storm or rainwater cover, depending on your policy. Check your PDS to see which section of your policy applies.
What is covered by flood insurance?
Home & contents insurance policies: If you hold a home and contents insurance policy then you can be covered for:
- Damage to your home (as in, the building) — this can help fix structural damages caused by the flood.
- Damage to your broader property - for example, if you have a shed in the backyard that's covered as part of your home policy, then cover would extend to that.
- Damage to your belongings inside the house — this includes rugs, lounges, carpets, even electronics if they were affected by flood water.
Home (building) only policies: If you hold a home only policy then only the building is covered. All your belongings inside the house are not covered.
Contents only policies: If you hold a contents insurance policy only then only your contents are covered. You won't be covered for damages to the actual house.
What isn't covered by flood insurance?
Most home insurance policies won't cover you for flood damage if you make a claim within 72 hours of buying the policy. Put simply, if you take out cover while a flood warning is active, your insurance claim will be rejected.
There are a few exclusions related to floods that you won't be covered for. These are some of the main ones. To find out more, it's worth looking at the exclusions section of your home insurer's product disclosure statement (PDS).
- Actions of the sea – for example, tsunamis or high tides.
- Water that's entered your home because of renovations.
- Water that has gradually seeped into your building.
- Earth movement that was not due to the flood or storm.
Flood insurance in action
"We had an above ground pool explode next door, which caused a tonne of water damage to our downstairs carpet. It was a nightmare. Luckily we had updated our home insurance earlier that year, and it was covered. It would have been a pretty costly situation for us if we hadn't, or we would have had to sue the neighbours, it would have been the worst. Home insurance really paid for itself that day."
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