Gary Ross Hunter was an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). See full bio
Gary Ross's expertise
Gary Ross has written 725 Finder guides across topics including:
- Health, home, life, car, pet and travel insurance
- Managing the cost of living
We are attempting to get our holiday house insured as we are about to holiday let it via airbnb, stayz etc. Our house is made out of shipping containers and we have been told that they can’t insure us. Do you know which insurance company would insure us?
Hi Penny, With an unusual property like this, you might be best off working with an insurance broker to find the right policy. You may find mainstream insurers are reluctant to offer a policy on a property that falls outside the norm like this, but there will be a specialised insurer that can help you.
Best of luck!
We wish to insure our house-only for buildings insurance, but it is on 50 acres, with our vineyard / winery business conducted at the same address. The house has nothing to do with the business, but most insurers will not cover us at all because of the business being co-located on the site.
It takes about 15 minutes worth of questions with each insurer to get to the point where the “computer says no”, so it is a painful process to try to find an insurer.
Are there any insurers who will cover our house? Thanks.
Hi Rhonda, Given the complexity of your situation, it might be worthwhile consutling with an insurance broker.
You can learn more about how insurance brokers work and how to find one in this guide.
Best of luck!
Hi Team
I have just built a new 2 x unit duplex on the Sunshine Coast. It is under one title at this stage. I want to live in one unit and long term rent the other unit. What insurance companys will do this for me?
Hi Wil, Have you considered using an insurance broker? They can often assist with trickier risks like yours. The National Insurance Brokers Association has a search tool that might help you find someone in your area: https://www.needabroker.com.au/
Hope this helps!
Hi,
I have a 4-bedroom townhouse in Canberra. The house set up is a 3-bedroom main house, a courtyard and then a 1-bedroom studio on top of the garage (4bdr in total). We have 2 separate tenants, is it possible to get these insured separately? One tenant rents the main house, courtyard and garage and the other tenant rents the studio apartment on top of the garage.
Struggling to find someone who can help us, hoping you will be able to! :) The studio is not titled separately to the main house.
Hi Jared,
Have you considered using an insurance broker? They can often assist with trickier risks like yours. The National Insurance Brokers Association has a search tool that might help you find someone in your area.
Alternatively, one of the insurers on this panel of landlords insurers may be able to help.
Can you provide an insurer who covers house heritage overlay
Hi Christine, More information about insuring older homes is available here: https://www.finder.com.au/home-insurance/older-homes-insurance