Your next home
Whether you’re looking for your dream home or an investment property, there are a few things you’ll want to think about when it comes to moving, selling your home and buying to rent.
Renting out your property
If you’re thinking about renting out some or all of your property, consider getting in touch with your insurer to talk them through your plans. Renting out your property for short-term or long-term rentals may have implications for your insurance cover. Our partner AA Home offers a number of home inspection services to help prepare properties for rental and ensure ongoing care. From healthy homes assessments to rental property inspections, AA Home’s Book a Job service makes it easy to book reliable, qualified tradespeople and service providers at a time that suits you. Plus, AA Insurance customers can get up to 10% off services. Find out more at AA Home Book a Job.
Doing your due diligence
Even if it’s not your first home, consider undertaking thorough due diligence prior to signing the sales and purchase agreement. Tools like localised flood plans are being developed, updated and released to the public regularly. These can help inform on area-specific risks, often down to the exact address of the home. Consider researching the property you’re interested in, the surrounding land and area as this can help you make an informed decision.
In addition to a pre-purchase inspection and legal documents like the record of title, the following resources can provide valuable information on the property:
The Land Information Memorandum (LIM) provides a summary of information the local council holds about the land, such as natural hazard risks, issued consents, water services and drainage.
Natural hazards, including severe weather events are important considerations when you’re looking at houses. On top of the LIM report, you might want to look at the Natural Hazards portal, which will give you area and property specific information and tell you if there's been any natural hazard claims settled by Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake at that specific address.
Localised hazards maps have been made available by some local councils to help communities understand risks in their local area. Contact your local council to discuss what is available in your region.
A property lawyer can help you review documentation, fill in the paperwork and spot any potential hazards and issues with the property before you commit to purchase.
Learn more about Natural Hazard risk on our blog
Selling your home
Open homes
It’s common to hold open homes when you put your property on the market, and, with strangers coming into your home, you may be thinking about how you can protect your items from light-fingered guests. Taking reasonable steps to protect your belongings is a good place to start, such as putting away high value items like jewellery and small electronic devices. Reviewing your contents insurance policy can also give you piece of mind, knowing you have enough cover if something were to happen:
look at the sum insured listed on your policy documents, as this is the maximum dollar amount your contents are covered for.
you may also want to review the adjustable event limits; some categories of contents have adjustable limits, which is the maximum amount your insurer will pay for each category of items for a single event.
Temporary storage
When it comes to presenting the best version of your home, real estate agents may recommend a minimalist approach to home decor. If you choose to put your contents in a commercial storage facility, they may be covered under our contents insurance policy. Make sure to read the policy wording as some limits apply.
Learn more about selling your home on our blog
Moving house
If you’re moving house, don’t forget to update the postal and residential address listed on your policies. It’s also a good time to ensure your other contact details, like your phone number and email address, are up to date. If you have contents insurance, take a look at the policy wording to understand how your belongings will be covered while you’re in transit.
AA Home also provide an easy moving solution, Moving Services. Whether you’re shifting to your next family home, downsizing or facilitating a business move, AA Home can help.
Helpful tools for home buyers and owners
Home Buyer's Guide
Things to consider from an insurance perspective. Our comprehensive guide provides things to consider at each stage of your home buying journey.
Insurance calculators
It can be hard to work out how much your home and contents are worth. By setting an accurate sum insured, this can help make sure you have enough cover at claim time. Our handy insurance calculators can help.
We're here for you
At AA Insurance, we put our customers’ needs first and pride ourselves on being there to protect what matters most to you, so you can rest easy knowing that we’ve got you covered.
One event, one excess - If you ever have to claim on more than one AA Insurance policy for the same event, you only have to pay one excess - the highest applicable one.
Replacement cover so in any event other than a natural hazard, we'll fully repair or rebuild your home even if it costs more than you insured it for.
New for old replacement for most of your items that are stolen or damaged beyond repair. So if someone did take off with your definitely-seen-better-days-couch, we'd replace it with a new one.