Landlord insurance vs home insurance

What's the difference between landlord insurance and home insurance?

Landlord insurance

Landlord insurance is a specialist form of home insurance that covers everything normal home insurance does – plus a range of extra protections for problems unique to landlords. This can include theft and intentional damage by the tenant, loss of rent when your place is damaged or if the tenant can't pay and legal expenses and replacement locks if you have to evict a tenant.

Home insurance

Home insurance covers you if a storm, fire, theft or other insured event damages or destroys your home or its contents. You can typically choose two forms of protection: protection for your home (building insurance) and protection for your belongings (contents insurance). It's a step down from landlord insurance because that also protects your business; specifically, any issues your tenants may cause.

What will landlord insurance protect you for that home insurance won't?

The tenant protection part of landlord insurance gives you additional protection against the following:

• Theft and intentional damage by the tenant
• Loss of rent when your place is damaged
• Loss of rent if the tenant can't pay
• Your legal expenses if you have to evict a tenant
• Replacement locks if you have to evict a tenant

Features included in landlord insurance vs home insurance

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the similarities and differences between landlord insurance and home insurance.

Renting out a property? Get covered with landlord insurance

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Name	Product	Tenant Default and Damage	Loss of Rent	Accidental Damage	Sum Insured Safeguard	Cooling-off Period	Cheapest way to pay
Budget Direct Landlord Insurance		Optional	10% of the sum insured amount of your property	Optional	Optional	21 days	Annually	Save 15% on your first year's premium when you purchase cover online. T&Cs apply.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
ANZ Landlord Insurance		Optional	Up to $52,000	Optional		21 days	Monthly or Annually	Save up to 10% with two eligible insurance policies and 12.5% for three eligible insurance policies. T&Cs apply.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
St. George Landlord Insurance			The lesser of: Up to 10% of your sum insured amount, or the amount of lost rent			21 days	Monthly or Annually	Save up to 25% when you purchase cover online. Promo code: COVER	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Westpac Landlord Insurance			The lesser of: Up to 10% of your sum insured amount, or the amount of lost rent			21 days	Monthly or Annually	Get up to 25% off for your first year. Promo code: COVER	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Virgin Landlord Insurance		Optional	10% of the sum insured amount of your property	Optional	Optional	21 days	Annually	Purchase a new eligible Virgin Home and Contents Insurance policy online and you'll also save 15% on your first year’s premium. T&C’s Apply.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Domain Landlord Insurance		Optional	Optional - Up to 12 months of your weekly rental amount			30 days	Annually	Domain Insure uses property data to help build your quote faster.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Qantas Landlord Insurance			10% of the sum insured amount of your property	Optional	Optional	21 days	Annually	Earn up to 20,000 Qantas Points when you apply. Points awarded will be based on your premium. T&Cs & exclusions apply.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
QBE Landlord Insurance			The lesser of: Up to 24 months of lost rent, or 20% of your buildings sum insured amount			21 days	Annually	Save 10% on your first years’ premium with QBE Landlord Insurance.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Seniors Landlords Insurance			The lesser of: 12 months rent, or 10% of your building sum insured, or the lost rent			14 days	Annually	Buy online and save up to 15% on landlord building and contents policies. T&Cs apply.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Youi Landlord Insurance		Optional	The reasonable rental amount for up to 12 months			20 days	Annually	Cover for investment property from fire, theft and numerous weather events.	Get a quote View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...

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How to choose the right landlord insurance

As a landlord, there are three areas you need to protect: your building, the belongings that you keep in the building and your rental income. Here's how to make sure you have the right amount of cover:

• Decide what needs to be protected. If you don't keep much inside the property or if losing the contents won't break the bank, you may be able to get away without landlord contents insurance. If you are renting to a family member and trust them not to burn the place down, you may also be able to do without landlord insurance. Similarly, if you're living in an apartment, you might not need building insurance as strata has your back. But for the most part, it would be shortsighted to go without either building insurance or landlord protection because these can save your entire investment.
• Decide how much to insure the building for. When you're insuring the building, it makes sense to insure it for its entire value, otherwise you would only get a partial payout if it's destroyed. This could end up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars. You can also add additional cover that would enable you to rebuild your property to the same specs as the old one – even if the cost of building materials has risen causing the costs to blow out.
• Read and re-read the exclusions in your policy documents. These are the situations where you won't be covered. For example, you often won't be covered for floods unless you buy additional flood protection. If you're not familiar with your policy's exclusions, it can be easy to overlook a key piece of information like this.

FAQs about landlord insurance vs home insurance

• Do you need home insurance if you already have landlord insurance?

  No, you won't need an additional home insurance policy if you've already taken out building and contents insurance as part of your landlord insurance. However, if you've only taken out tenant protection, that won't cover you if the building is damaged, or if the items inside are damaged or stolen. In that case, you would need to add either building insurance or contents insurance depending on your needs.

• Do you need landlord and home insurance if you live in the same building?

  If you live in the same building where your rental properties are located, you should make sure your personal home is insured in addition to your rental properties – meaning you'll need two separate policies.

  Speak to your insurer first though. It may be able to set you up with a custom policy to suit a variety of living situations.

• What is the difference between landlord insurance and tenants insurance?

  Landlord insurance refers to a group of products that covers three areas: the building, the contents and any issues caused by the tenants. The insurance for the latter is known as tenants insurance or tenants protection, and is simply one of these three subsets.

Brands still offering landlord insurance

As of 15 October 2021, the following brands are still offering new landlord insurance policies. All existing policies should be respected, but it's best to check directly with your insurer.

Provider	Are they still offering landlord insurance?	Are they offering tenant default options?	Apply
	Yes	Yes	Get quote
	Yes	No	Get quote
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	No	Get quote
	Yes	No	Get quote
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	No	More info
	Yes	Yes	Get quote
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	No	More info
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	No	More info
	Yes	No	More info
	Yes	Yes	More info
	Yes	In some cases	More info
	Yes	No	More info

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