Compare Landlord Insurance

Landlord Insurance

Landlord insurance can cover you for a range of different insured events, from the usual home insurance inclusions for fire and natural disasters, to incidents related to your tenants’ lease, including:

• Theft
• Malicious damage and vandalism
• Loss of rent due to tenant default (although some providers have taken this option off new policies due to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis)
• Legal expenses required to evict a tenant

And the good news is that because it is an investment expense, your policy premiums are potentially tax deductible.

There are also policies available to cover short-term rental landlords who use sites like Airbnb, Stayz and Flatmates.com.au to rent out a room or part of their home property, such as a granny flat. If home owners aren’t covered and a renter or guest damages their property, they can face paying for expensive repairs on their own.

Even worse, they could face expensive public liability claims if a renter is injured while staying on their property – which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Compare landlord insurance

Canstar compares landlord insurance with our unique, sophisticated landlord insurance star ratings methodology, comparing both pricing and features to determine the overall value of an insurance product. The results are reflected in our consumer-friendly 5-star concept, with a 5-star rating signifying an insurance policy that offers outstanding value.

Canstar compares thousands of quotes across each of the states and territories in Australia, and assessing more than 100 different features within 16 categories.

Some of the features Canstar compares for landlord insurance are:

• Premiums
• Weekly rent limit on the policy
• Accidental damage or damage caused by natural disasters and storms
• Theft or burglary caused by tenant
• Malicious damage caused by tenant to building and/or contents
• Damage caused by tenant’s pet
• Public liability cover for injury to someone visiting your investment property
• Rent loss due to insured events, prevention of access, rental default by tenant, death of sole tenant, damage caused by tenant, theft by tenant, tenants obtaining a financial hardship order, absconding tenants, tenant’s failure to give vacant possession, or tenant eviction by court order
• Re-letting expenses after a claim on rental loss
• Removal of tenant’s goods after a claim on rental loss
• Change of locks after a claim on rental loss
• Legal costs such as representation fees, related to tenant eviction by court order or claim for rental loss
• Cover for professional tax audit fees

Check what else you need to consider when choosing a landlord insurance policy here.

You can read the full landlord insurance star ratings report or compare landlord insurance yourself, based on your own property requirements, using the comparison selector tool at the top of the page.

Author: Nina Tovey

As Canstar’s Editor-in-Chief, Nina heads up a team of talented  journalists committed to helping empower consumers to take greater control of their finances. Previously Nina founded her own agency where she provided content and communications support to clients around Australia for eight years. She also spent four years as the PR Manager for American Express Australia, and has worked at a Brisbane communications agency where she supported dozens of clients, including Sunsuper and Suncorp.

Nina has ghostwritten dozens of opinion pieces for publications including The Australian and has been interviewed on finance topics by the Herald Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald. When she’s not dreaming up ways to put a fresh spin on finance, she’s taking her own advice by trying to pay her house off as quickly as possible and raising two money-savvy kids.

Nina has a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English Literature from the University of Queensland. She’s also an experienced presenter, and has hosted numerous events and YouTube series.

You can follow her on Instagram or Twitter, or Canstar on Facebook.

You can also read more about Canstar’s editorial team and our robust fact-checking process.