Does your home insurance cover pets? You might be surprised

Home insurance exists to make sure funds are available in case your home is unexpectedly damaged and needs repair. And with pets being arguably one of the most unpredictable and potentially destructive elements in our homes, you might assume that insurance would cover damage they cause. But you would be wrong.

We analysed 98 home and contents insurance policies to see how they treat pets, and uncovered five surprising insights. While policies generally don’t cover damage caused by pets, we did find four lesser-known situations where pets are covered – some of which may surprise you.

1. Home insurance covers your pet’s accommodation if you can’t stay in your home

Overall, 95% of the home insurance policies we compared will pay to house your pets if your home is too damaged from an insured event to live in. Only AHM, Aldi, Bupa’s lower-tier policies, Huddle, Honey, RAA and RACQ restrict emergency accommodation to just the humans in your family.

A few insurers – Australian Seniors, Bupa, CBA, Everyday, Huddle and Real – specify that the offer of temporary accommodation is extended only to dogs and cats, while the rest use the term “pets”, with most mentioning that they’ll pay for commercial boarding facilities if your family needs temporary accommodation.

2. Home insurance will pay if your dog bites someone

If your dog injures someone, your home insurance could cover their medical bills – even if it happens when you’re away from home. Home insurance policies include cover for legal liability, so if you or a family member is deemed responsible for an accidental injury, as is usually the case when you’re responsible for a dog and they hurt someone, your home insurance could pay for things like legal fees, medical bills or compensation.

Some insurers limit this to just dogs, while others extend cover to dogs, cats and horses. Injuries or damage away from your property is covered by contents insurance, while injuries or damage on your property is covered by building insurance, and combined policies cover both.

3. Some home insurers cover vet bills

The following insurers will contribute to vet bills if your pet is injured in a road accident:

• Bank Australia
• Bank of Melbourne
• BankSA
• COTA
• Great Southern Bank
• Guild
• Guild
• HCF
• Hume Bank
• Kogan
• NAB
• National Seniors
• Over Fifty
• St.George
• TIO
• Westpac

And you can add cover for vet bills as an optional extra to policies from GIO, RAA, RACQ and Suncorp.

4. Home insurance will cover damage by uninvited pets

Other people’s pets that have not been invited onto your property are generally covered, so if they cause sudden accidental damage, you can make a claim for the cost of repairs – provided it’s not excluded by one of the other clauses in your policy.

5. Almost no home insurance policies will cover pet damage to your home

While you’re generally covered if an uninvited animal shows up at your house, if it’s your own pet doing the damage the news isn’t so good. Of the 98 policies we analyse, 97 policies specifically exclude all damage caused by pets in their standard version (the exception is Youi – it provides cover for fire caused by pets, but that’s it). This exclusion includes your guests’ pets, and pets you’re minding too. Basically, damage they cause won’t be covered if you’ve allowed the animal to be on your premises. 

You can pay for the accidental damage optional extra to get some cover for pet damage, but this comes at an extra cost, and with its own set of exclusions.

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Jane Bardell

Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance. Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team. Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales.  Find Jane on LinkedIn.

Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance. Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team. Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales.  Find Jane on LinkedIn.