Renter’s insurance NZ: A tenant’s guide to getting the right cover

Renter’s insurance is another word for contents insurance. These policies cover loss, theft or damage of your personal belongings and may also often offer some liability protection - meaning you may be covered if you’re involved in an accident that damages someone else's property.

Anything that’s not attached to your house is generally covered by renter’s insurance. That would include your furniture, jewelry, TV, laptop, phone, clothes, musical instruments, linen, cutlery and small appliances. 

These items are covered against a wide variety of events - depending on your policy these may include:

• Accidental damage at home. 

• Accidental damage or loss anywhere in New Zealand (some policies may not cover this). 

• Theft or burglary. 

• Losing your stuff. 

• Damage due to natural disasters or weather events. 

• Damage to contents while moving.

Many policies also cover your legal liability if you damage someone else’s stuff by accident. For example, if you were to drop a friend’s phone or break their air fryer by overfilling it with chicken nuggets.

Every renter’s insurance policy is different but they all have similar limits and exclusions. These may include:

• Malicious damage or theft by flatmates. 

• Unspecified high value items that are worth more than your policy limits. 

• Normal wear and tear (insurable damage usually has to happen as a result of one event). 

• Business equipment: including everything used to run a business from home. 

Some policies may also not cover you for theft if you leave your doors unlocked. Check your policy wording to make sure you understand what’s included. 

Since you’re not required to get renter’s insurance by law, it’s completely up to you. Here are a few questions to ask to help you decide whether or not you need it:

1. How much are all your possessions worth including clothing, electronics, jewelry, books and furniture? It may be worth spending a little time looking at your possessions and adding up their total estimated value. 

1. If your stuff was lost, damaged or stolen could you afford to buy it again? 

1. Would you struggle to cope without certain key items like a computer, phone or washing machine?

1. If you were to accidentally damage someone else's property could you afford to pay for it?

If you don’t have many valuable possessions, or you have a huge savings buffer, you may decide that you don’t need contents insurance. If you do make that decision, ensure you’ve thought about the worst case scenario and whether you’d cope financially. 

If you’re getting renter’s insurance to cover damage to your landlord’s property keep in mind that your liability as a tenant is limited - it’s your landlord’s responsibility to insure their property. If you cause careless damage to the rental property you’ll have to pay a maximum of four week’s rent or the landlord’s excess, whichever is lower. 

This limit only applies to careless or accidental damage, not malicious or intentional damage. If you damage your landlord or flatmate’s property on purpose you’ll be fully liable for any damages and your renter’s insurance policy won’t cover you.

Via Trade Me Insurance, contents insurance costs $538.37 a year or $49.17 per month*. This is just an example - insurance doesn’t cost the same for everyone and your premium will vary depending on a number of factors (more on this below).

Get a contents insurance quote with Trade Me Insurance.

The best way to find out exactly how much insurance will cost is to request a quote online. With Trade Me Insurance this takes just a few minutes. 

*This example was calculated based on a 32 year old male with no prior contents claims, with a sum insured of $20,000 and an excess of $500. 

• Where you live: certain addresses may attract a slightly higher premium. For example, Auckland addresses tend to cost more than Central Otago ones. 

• Your age: younger people may pay higher premiums.

• The total amount of cover you need to replace your contents. 

• Security at your property and number of flatmates: some policies may adjust your premium higher or lower depending on how many flatmates you have and whether or not you have a burglary alarm installed. 

• Your payment arrangement: fortnightly or monthly payments may be more convenient, but if you pay yearly you may pay less overall. 

• Your excess ammount: you can choose the excess you pay in the event of a claim. These usually range from $250 to $2,000. A lower excess usually means a higher premium and vice versa. 

• Claims and insurance history: whether you’ve suffered any loss or damage to contents in the last three years, had any insurance claims denied, policies avoided or had any special terms applied. You may have to share details around these events. 

• Criminal history of the insured. 

• Finance on insured items. 

You may also need to pay extra to cover certain items. That includes jewelry over the value of $2,500, works of art worth over $5,000, collections worth over $3,000, mobile phones over $1,000 and any other item over $5,000.