Worth the effort by the Choice team. We renewed all our policies in Feb, but now have an insurer from the middle of the pack. A comparison with the recommended options suggests it could be worth changing.
We walked away from one of the motoring organisations products after many years. Their position on the review table has not changed.
Thanks for the feedback @PhilT.
When we review insurance we send surveys to insurers asking them for a number of quotes for each of their products, which (after verifying a sample ourselves) we use to calculate the price rating. Some insurers refuse to participate, in which case we will try to collect the quotes ourselves. This is a labour-intensive task to do manually and unfortunately we have to make resourcing decisions about which insurers to include and which to exclude.
Weâre looking at ways to improve this process and include as many insurers as possible, so Allianz will be included in future reviews. Weâll also be looking at updating the info at the top of the review page to make this clear.
TIO is missing as well, oh bu I repeat what you said 
it makes no difference to me after what Allianz did to TIO and its customers âŠ
It wouldnât hurt to list these in the review to assist consumers âŠ
That would be very easy to do in the header text to the article. It would be a good idea as it also indicates which insurers arenât keen to provide the necessary information to Choice.
âŠa whoâs who of who not to insure with 
(Allianz/TIO for starters, it would seem âŠ)
Hi,
I would really appreciate an explanation of the âCurrent Building Codeâ exclusion in the Youi Home Insurance Policy (p.25, point two of the PDS). It states they will not pay for: âadditional costs resulting from your buildings or any part thereof not being
compliant with the most recent building codes, laws and regulations.â
I have sought an explanation from Youi and from other sources and none of them are consistent. I live in a fifty-year old house. How can my house be complaint with âcurrentâ building codes? Youi advised me that it means if I can get an unlicensed repair to my house and something goes wrong with that, they wonât pay for that to be fixed. But that isnât really quite what the policy says. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
I expect that Youi is saying that they will only repair like for like or pay the cost of doing so.
If the home is upgraded to current specifications, either because regulations require it to be done or the owner desires it, then Youi will not pay the extra costs to do so.
Hi @Arbee1 And welcome to the community.
You have me thinking about our 150year old home and itâs latest policy renewal. Not with Youi.
The definitions in the T&Cs are always a good place to look, irrespective of what you may get verbally. I had recent dealings with two different household insurers and looked at a third. RACQ and Suncorp were two of those. The response over the phone changed when I asked for written confirmation, and I was simply referred to the PDS and Policy documentation.
Perhaps putting your specific questions to the insurer or prospective insurer in writing/email and asking for specific written responses is one way to seek reassurance.
Choice also has a number of guides on the main web site. They may be able to clarify some points too?
It sounds like Youi are avoiding committing to any extra costs of upgrading a repair to be compliant with the latest building standards. They may pay only for a portion of a repair based on like for like. Although for older houses that may be even more expensive. In which instance the policy may need to best reflect the non standard value and the property to be more expensive to insure.
Could you perhaps ask members of this forum to get quotes for you eg Consumer Defenders. You would only need to supply the details for the quoting (the insurers you want contacted and the items etc you want quoted for) to each participant and let the members do the âwalkingâ. When they get the quotes they just PM a contact person in this site and the job is less intensive for CHOICE Staff. I am sure it would just require someone asking people here for help in the task and setting up the agreements and speadsheets needed.
When I conatcted multiple insurers for quotes prior to renewing our house & contents insurance earlier this year, they all wanted the address of the property as part of the online input.
So it would need to use similar properties in similarareas to be able to attempt to get realistically comparable quotes.
Easy enough to do to provide the same âaddressâ to get comparisons based on same property details, the same would go for contents. I think to keep comparisons fair CHOICE would have a âstandardâ property on which they get a quote from each insurer.
They would get all brick, timber, steel frame, timber frame etc and then give each member getting a quote the same build of property eg brick for one, stell framed and so onâŠthis is why it would be so labour intensive currently for CHOICE with limited staff numbers to contact so many businesses.
Weâve rated these policies as the three worst for home insurance:
This link in the article does not work.
âWondering why itâs so exxy? Daniel explains it in this article about weathering a home insurance storm in northern Australia.â
Regardless, it is a joke that Northern Australia gets a raw deal after all the disasters in the South starting with the bushfires.
As per my post under another topic, several companies I contacted earlier this year refuse to provide insurance in FNQ.
Yep that link just takes you back to the article the link is inâŠround and round you go 
Choice article âHome insurance cover for bushfiresâ, updated in in January 2020, noted that one major insurer excludes damage caused by âheat, ash, soot and smoke when your home or contents have not caught on fire unless it is caused by a burning building within 10 metres of the insured addressâ.
Upon enquiring recently with my own insurer and several others large companies, whilst renewing my policy I found that sadly this appears to be the general case rather than the exception. Unfortunately this exclusion is not as clearly identified by all companies.
So if you happen to go out, accidentally leaving a window open, and then a bushfire starts nearby, resulting in smoke and soot damage to curtains, carpets, furnishings, paintwork etc , you are not covered unless your house has actually caught fire. So this is damage, which was caused by a bushfire, which is not âfire damageâ.
Hi & welcome to the forum @janyneG. I have moved your post to this existing thread relating to Choiceâs home and contents insurance review.
Thanks for the heads up. A cynic would probably point out that the lack of clarity in the Ts&Cs is more the rule than the exception.
This reminds me of the imbroglio relating to the definition of flood damage. The insurance companies evaded paying claims by âdeterminingâ that the water damage was not from the flood, but rather from precipitation, or from storm, or from flowing water⊠etc.
I live in Nth Qld & have found it very difficult to find insurance companies who will insure in Nth Qld without charging an arm & a leg! I am currently with Vero who have been quite good however I have just seen an ad for Sure Insurance who claim they specialize in insuring in the North. I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with this firm. I got an online quote & it is around 1/2 the price I am currently paying. Any advice would be appreciated.
We have just renewed our Home & Contents Insurance with Suncorp after ânegioatingâ a much better deal on the renewal notice they sent to us last month.
When I received it, I got an online quote from Sure Insurance which was even higher than Suncorpâs original try.
The previous year, I got online quotes from all the usual suspects except the clowns who wonât insure FNQ and Sure was again higher than Suncorp, and the only ones lower were those who you would not want to rely on when a disaster happens.
If you wish to post your suburb, the sums insured, and the premiums offered by the two insurers, I may be able to comment further.
Hi @Anne2, I have moved your post to an existing thread about home and contents insurance. There may be posts in this thread which you may also find useful.
Thank you
