Here's the bottom line
When you're weighing up your assets and home insurance options, don't overlook your shed, where you'll often find more value than you'd think.
Each month, we get crunching on most every home insurance product 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.
Shed insurance covers your shed and the things you keep in it against damage or loss from a whole range of scenarios, including theft.
The good news is that most home, building and contents insurance policies treat sheds and other permanent outdoor structures – garages, pergolas, granny flats – like they're part of the home. This means that you can get the same levels and types of cover for your shed as you can for your main house.
Some policies will cover the shed itself, some just the things you keep in it, and some will cover the shed plus its contents.
The first step is to include your shed and what's in it when you're tallying up your assets and choosing or tweaking your insurance policy. You'll have various home/building and contents insurance policies to pick from, and they'll cover your shed and its contents in various ways.
The policy that's right for you (and your shed) will depend on your situation. A suburban homeowner will have different needs to a renter who's using a landlord's shed for storage.
Home/building and contents policies offer protection against damage or loss from a long list of insured events such as fires, floods, vandalism, storms and theft.
Contents insurance can cover a whole range of things that people might keep in a shed. You might want to look into extending or tailoring your basic contents coverage if:
For any valuables that you're keeping in your shed, such as a ride-on mower or an expensive bike, check the upper limit that the policy pays out for these items. If the item's actual value exceeds the limit, then you can look into specified contents insurance as a way to increase the limit.
If you use your shed as part of your business or mainly for business purposes, your home and/or contents policy might not treat it as part of your home. Be sure to check this and ask about alternatives so your business won't affect your coverage.
When you're weighing up your assets and home insurance options, don't overlook your shed, where you'll often find more value than you'd think.
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