Home insurance with flood cover

Most home insurance policies include cover for floods, or at least have the option to add it as an extra. Compare options below.

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Product Finder Score Fire, Storm & Theft Damage Flood Accidental damage Escape of Liquid
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Our verdict: The most popular insurer on Finder, Budget Direct prioritises low-cost cover and gives you up to 30% off your first year's premium for new combined Home & Contents policies purchased online.
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Our verdict: Finder’s 2022 Insurer of the Year for Customer Satisfaction and our Top Pick for Fire Damage cover. It’s good if you want a tailored quote over the phone.
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Our verdict: Honey gives you $250 smart sensors to reduce accidents and estimates your rebuild costs for you.
Qantas Home Insurance logo
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Our verdict: Earn up to 50,000 Qantas Points for joining by 30 June. Plus save 30% on your 1st year’s premium for purchasing a combined home and contents policy online. T&Cs apply.
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Our verdict: Finder's Top Pick for Floods plus cover for other common claims such as fire and theft). Its discount is better than most – 20% off your first year with a combined policy.
Huddle Home Insurance logo
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Our verdict: Save up to 10% on your policy in the first year.
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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.

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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 by home insurance providers?

flood

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

Rainwater run-off

For example, if a large amount of rain falls and overflows into your home, you can be covered for the damage. Some insurers include this in flood cover, while others will cover rainwater in storm cover.

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

Tim Bennett's headshot

"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."

Insurance expert

FAQs

Jason Loewenthal's headshot
To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Jason Loewenthal as part of our fact-checking process.
Peta Taylor's headshot
Written by

Publisher of Insurance

Peta Taylor is a publisher at Finder, working across all of insurance. She's been analysing product disclosure statements and publishing articles for over 2 years. Peta is passionate about demystifying complex insurance products to help users make well educated decisions with confidence. Peta is part of Finder's insurance awards team and works alongside editorial and insights experts to bring users the best insurance products every year. See full bio

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