Compare flood cover insurance options

Flooding is often a standard inclusion in many home insurance policies – but there are exceptions. If you’re living in an area with a high risk of flooding, it’s possible that flood insurance may not be automatically included in your insurance policy.

Whether included in a home insurance policy or added as an optional extra, flood insurance covers your home (and often its contents) against the risk of damage from flooding. If your home experiences water damage due to flooding, you should be able to make a claim on your flood insurance to get your home and contents repaired, rebuilt, or replaced.

According to the Insurance Council of Australia, the standard definition of “flood”, which was introduced in June 2012, is:

The covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the normal confines of: 

1.any lake, or any river, creek or other natural watercourse, whether or not altered or modified; or 

2.any reservoir, canal, or dam. 

If your home is damaged by a flood event that falls outside of this definition (for example, an act of the sea like a tsunami), it’s possible the insurer could potentially deny your claim.

In the past, flood insurance was included in most home insurance policies around Australia as standard. However, following devastating flood events in several parts of Australia, insurers began making flood insurance an optional extra for their policies.

This is in part because the high flood risk in some areas, combined with the high cost of repairing or rebuilding a flooded home, can often make home insurance premiums unaffordable for some customers. By allowing customers the choice to opt out of flood cover, they can still access insurance cover for other events without breaking the bank.

It may be possible to get flood insurance when you live in a flood zone, it may not always be a practical or economical choice. Due to the high flood risk and potentially high repair or rebuilding cost of flooding, flood insurance premiums in these areas may cost significantly more than in other parts of Australia.

Due to past weather events and the future risk of climate change, some insurers, governments, and related bodies have expressed concerns that some parts of Australia could end up “uninsurable” in the future due to the high cost of flood insurance.

You’ll need to decide for yourself if flood cover is something you really need on your home insurance policy. Different homes may be at greater or lesser risk of experiencing a flood, and therefore be more or less likely to require flood insurance.

It may also be worth considering your home’s risk of damage due to storms or rainfall in your area. While you may be covered if your house is flooded after being inundated by rain, not all insurers cover flooding from rainwater runoff or storm surge if you have home insurance without flood coverage.

Depending on where you’re living, you may be able to check risk maps and similar resources from your local council or emergency services department to estimate the local risk of flooding and other natural disasters. This could help to give you a better idea of whether you’re likely to be charged more for flood insurance than you would in other areas. You may want to weigh up the cost and the benefits of flood insurance to work out if it’s something you really need.

Getting flood insurance involves a similar process to applying for any other insurance policy: Compare quotes, consider your options, decide on the best policy for you, and complete the application.

If you currently have a home insurance policy in place, check your paperwork or contact your insurer to confirm if you hold flood cover. If you’re not covered, you can contact the insurer to ask about adding flood insurance to your current policy. Just keep in mind the extra costs you may need to pay.