4 things that may cost a lot without Home and Contents Insurance

By AAMI 03 March 2025

Unexpected incidents can lead to unwelcome damage bills – but insurance can help if it’s an incident your policy covers!

Here are a few things you may not have thought about – but that, if not properly insured, could really hurt your hip pocket.

Glass sliding doors

Glass sliding doors can be a beautiful addition to your home – they let in plenty of natural light and can provide a connection to the world outside. However, accidents can happen and glass doors are not immune.

Repairing or replacing a shattered glass door can be expensive– sometimes thousands-of-dollars expensive. They’re generally damaged due to impact – like, say, a stray footy – which can cause massive cracks or even completely break through.

With AAMI, cover for accidental breakage of glass is automatically included in our Home Building Insurance policy. This means we’ll help cover the reasonable and necessary costs of repairing or replacing fixed glass which are part of the building like windows, skylights and doors. We also offer optional Excess-free Glass cover which you can add to your policy for an extra premium, allowing you to make a claim for repairs or replacement of accidentally broken fixed glass in your home without having to pay an excess. Exclusions apply, so read the PDS for more details.

Explore AAMI Excess-Free Glass cover

Cabinetry

Burst pipes can cause massive water damage to the surrounding areas. In kitchens, this can mean whole sections of cabinetry being waterlogged and warped beyond repair. Repairing or replacing water-damaged cabinetry can burn a hole in your pocket, as the costs of new materials and installation can quickly add up. In some circumstances, the damage can get so extensive that the countertops can’t be saved either – which means they’ll need replacing as well, adding even more costs.

The good news is that AAMI Home Building Insurance provides cover for damage to your home caused by sudden and unexpected escape of liquid from certain items including a drain, bath, toilet, basin, water main and swimming pool. We also cover loss or damage caused by liquid escaping from these items that has occurred gradually when it wasn’t easily visible to a reasonable person in the circumstances. Exclusions apply, please see the PDS for more information.

You should inspect your fittings regularly like visible pipes and flexi hoses to help avoid the damage a burst flexi hose or leak can cause!

Food and medication spoilage

Imagine coming home to a power outage that’s lasted for hours. The result? Spoiled food, and (in some cases) unusable medication. Food prices are going up, which means the thought of having to replace a fully-stocked fridge and freezer can be pretty daunting.

Luckily, AAMI has your back with this one too. If you have AAMI Contents Insurance, we’ll pay up to $400 for any one incident, and if you make a claim under this additional cover, no excess applies.

We’ll help cover this so long the spoilage is caused by:

an insured event
the sudden escape of refrigerant fumes
electrical or electronic breakdown, failure or malfunction, or
the public electricity supply failing to reach the insured address.

Refer to the PDS for details.

Legal liability costs

Here’s one that you may not have thought about much. Accidents can happen, even when you’re away from home, and legal liability costs can quickly spiral out of control – in extreme cases, into the millions-of-dollars level.

You get the gist by now – with AAMI Home and Contents Insurance, you may not have to worry. If your accident is covered by the policy, we’ll cover your legal liability to pay compensation for death or injury to others, or loss or damage to their property (up to $20 million).

This can stretch beyond your insured address, too. If you have AAMI Contents Insurance, we’ll provide legal liability cover anywhere in Australia or New Zealand for an incident.

For example, let’s say you have a son who loves riding his bike. Unfortunately, he’s not quite got a handle on it yet and he accidentally rides into a parked car, causing a dent and paint damage. AAMI Contents Insurance can help cover your son’s legal liability to pay for the cost of repairs to the damaged car! You will have to pay an applicable excess, but that may be more tolerable than fronting the whole cost yourself.

Explore AAMI Home & Contents Insurance

Insurance is issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 AFSL 230859 trading as AAMI. Limits, conditions and exclusions apply. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available.

This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it. This information applies to new policies or renewal policies starting on or after 24 January 2025.