Understanding Our New Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance PDS

Introducing the new Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for policies renewing on or after 25 March 2021. The PDS is an important legal document that contains details of the product you purchase so you need to read it carefully.

The purpose of this page is to advise you of some changes that we have made to our Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance PDS.

We want you to know that we’ve changed the layout of the PDS to help make it easier to understand. We have also made other changes to the policy – we have updated some of the wording to make it clearer and we have added and changed some covers, conditions and exclusions.

Below are some of the sections in the PDS where we have made changes:

Extra Support

Sometimes your circumstances might mean you need additional support or assistance in dealing with us. If you are comfortable, you can tell us about your situation, and we will work with you to arrange support.

Your responsibilities

To boost transparency, the reference to ‘take all reasonable care’ has been replaced with ‘take steps’. Ensuring there are working smoke detectors in the home or unit is given as an example of how you can take steps to prevent loss, damage or legal liability.

When you need to contact us

Additional situations when you must contact Suncorp have been included. Examples include:

criminal convictions
policy cancellations with other insurers
you start to operate or intend to operate a business at your insured address

Excesses that apply to your claim

We have removed the requirement for you to pay your excess upfront when a claim is lodged.

Some changes to Contents cover

We have removed limits for home office equipment. The limits for jewellery & watches has been increased for Classic & Classic Extras Content Cover. We have removed cover for cash, smart cards, phone cards and documents able to be cashed or traded.

Storm Surge

We have created a standalone storm surge insured event to increase transparency. We cover loss or damage caused by storm surge that happens at the same time as the other insured damage caused by storm.

Fire (including bushfire)

We have added further details to what is covered in the event of a fire, including cover for certain extra costs in the event of a bushfire.

We will cover loss or damage caused by heat, ash, soot and smoke that is the direct result of a fire within 100 metres of the insured address.

General Exclusions are now called ‘Things we don’t cover’.

Things we don’t cover include some new and updated exclusions such as:

Home, unit or contents that are not in good condition
Deliberate or reckless actions
Not complying with building laws or regulations
Communicable disease

We have updated the wording to remove the term ‘Additional features’ and have combined all additional covers under ‘Additional cover that comes with your policy’.

Change to Temporary accommodation cover

A monetary limit only applies now, not a time limit.

Matching undamaged parts

When a claim for loss or damage to your home or contents is covered and new materials cannot be matched to undamaged parts, there is some limited cover to repair, replace or rebuild certain undamaged parts of the home or contents in order to achieve a uniform appearance, up to $1,000 per incident.

New Optional covers that you can pay extra for are:

Excess-free Glass cover (Home cover only)

This optional cover will apply in addition to the ‘Accidental breakage of glass’ additional cover. You can add Excess-Free Glass cover to cover accidental breakage of fixed glass in windows, doors, skylights, shower screens as well as mirrors fixed to your home and other fixed glass. We cover the cost to replace that glass without you having to pay an excess.

Suncorp Insurance Home Assist

You can add Suncorp Insurance Home Assist as an optional cover, being an emergency assistance service that provides you with plumbing, electrical, locksmith or carpentry services in the event of a home emergency. It is not a general maintenance or preventative service (for example, it doesn’t cover painting, or replacing light bulbs or tap washers) or a disaster response service.

How we settle your claim

We’ve made a range of changes to this section to better explain how we will settle your claim.

For example, that we will aim to use a member of our building supplier network to repair or rebuild your home, and how we may pay you an assessed amount if a member of our supplier network is unable to repair or rebuild your home or you want a cash settlement.

Refer to the PDS for more details.

Lifetime guarantee on home repairs

We have removed a lifetime guarantee on the quality of materials and workmanship – we continue to offer a guarantee on the quality of workmanship.

Our right to recover from those who are responsible

We have added examples of the assistance that may be required from you if we take action against a party for the recovery of your loss.

Joint policyholders

During the period of insurance, we might ask all joint policyholders first before we action a request or direction in relation to your policy (e.g. before we cancel your policy, reduce your cover or remove another policyholder). This way we can help protect the interests of all policyholders.

New section - Conduct of others

When we consider a claim, we will have regard to prejudice suffered by you due to conduct of others and may meet the claim when we are not legally required to do so.

Removed - Cancellation fee

If you decide to cancel your insurance cover with Suncorp, you will no longer be charged a cancellation fee.

For full details, please refer to your PDS.

The information above is not a complete list of the changes to your Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance. For full details of what is and isn’t covered, please read the Suncorp Home and Contents Insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). Consider the PDS before making a decision about this insurance. The Target Market Determination is also available.