Renting out your property? To help you mitigate the potential risks of this move, we’ve put together a list of the best landlords’ insurance in NZ for this article.

We’ll also cover the fundamentals of choosing a landlord insurance policy. Hopefully, this will be of great help when you browse our options below.

At any rate, let’s start!

How to Choose Landlord Insurance

Landlord insurance is almost the same as home or contents insurance – but with more protection for the landlord’s property and belongings.

Before buying landlords insurance, you have to look at the coverage, benefits, excess, claims process, and T & C’s.

Let’s take a look at each of these factors below:

1. Coverage

Usually, insurance companies let you choose the level of cover for landlords’ insurance. You can find policies that cover your home, possessions, or both.

We suggest taking home and contents landlords’ insurance. After all, you’re trying to insure against accidents or deliberate damage to your rental home.

Getting only insurance for the home’s contents won’t be enough. Say someone misused the gas when cooking and an explosion occurred: if you didn’t insure your rental home too (and not just its contents), then the cost of actual home repairs is on you.

However, you can settle for just landlord contents insurance if you can’t afford landlord home and contents insurance. You can just try to upgrade to a full policy later, once you can afford it.

2. Features and Benefits

As we mentioned earlier, each policy comes with different features and benefits. Let’s list down those that are important:

Full Rebuild -If your rental home is burned down or damaged by events covered in your policy, it will be fully rebuilt up to the amount of or more than your sum insured.

Deliberate Damage Cover – If someone has damaged your property intentionally, you will be covered for the costs.

Loss of Rent – This is the amount given to you, typically with a maximum of $20,000 or 12 months of rent, if your house becomes uninhabitable due to damage or loss.

Meth Contamination Cover – This insures you against the cost of cleanup, damage, and possible rental loss brought on by the drug contaminating the air and furnishings.

Liability Cover – This covers you from having accidentally damaged another person’s property. Insurance firms usually provide cover for this between $1M and $20M.

3. Excess

Excess is the amount that you pay when you make a claim. Each benefit has its excess applied so that you can get the claim process going.

Insurance companies let you choose your excess from $300 to $2,500. The higher the excess you choose, the lower your premium will be.

As such, it can usually give you tremendous savings over the year to choose a higher excess.

4. Claims Process

For policyholders, the claims process is often very frustrating because they find it hard to file a claim or talk to a representative for advice.

Our featured insurers below make the claim process super-easy. Some of them have an online system where you can manage your policy and claim-filing online.

Furthermore, their claims team can support you round-the-clock. And with their solid financial strength ratings, you can be reasonably confident that they will be able to pay out your claim.

5. Terms and Conditions

Most importantly, you have to read and understand the policy wording to know what you are covered and not covered for.

This way, you have higher chances for successful claims and all the premiums you have paid every month will not have been a waste.

The Best Landlords’ Insurance in NZ

Having gone through the basics, you’re now ready for our list of the top landlords’ insurance options in New Zealand!

1)   AMP Landlords Insurance

Best for	Flexible landlord insurance
Products	Everyday Plus Landlord Home cover Everyday Plus Landlord Contents cover
Benefits	Home Insurance   Legal Liability SumExtra Meth contamination Malicious damage Gradual damage Loss of rent Removal of debris Damage to gardens and plants Temporary accommodation for shared homes Mortgage discharge costs Retaining walls Lock replacement Other repair/rebuilding costs   Contents Insurance   Legal Liability Meth contamination Malicious damage Gradual damage Removal of debris Storage of undamaged contents Contents on common property Lock replacement
Contact Details	Phone: 0508 806 244 Emergency assistance: 0800 800 786 Overseas: +64 9 916 4417 Email: [email protected]

Enquire Here

AMP’s landlord insurance stands out from the pack in that they let you choose the payment frequency, excess, and whether you want to protect your house, contents, or both.

You can opt to pay your premium yearly, monthly, or fortnightly. Moreover, you can choose a higher excess that will effectively lower your landlord insurance premium.

The comprehensive home policy features SumExtra too, which covers up to 10% of your sum insured if your property is severely damaged by a disaster.

Additionally, both landlord insurance policies cover legal liability, meth contamination, gradual damage, and broken locks. Also, malicious damage cover comes as an add-on for both policies.

At claims time, you will be guided through the process by their team to make it pain-free. And they are there to assist you and clear out any confusion 24/7.

2)   Initio Landlord Insurance

Best for	Efficient claim management
Products	Landlord Insurance
Benefits	Loss of rent Deliberate damage Meth contamination Landlord contents Replacement cover Legal liability Excess-free blocked pipe Hidden gradual damage Excess-free keys & locks Loss of rent – tenant eviction or vacation
Address	BECA Building, 6 Garden Place, Hamilton City, Hamilton, New Zealand
Contact Details	Customer Service   Phone: 0800 763 929 Overseas: +64 7 929 4126 [email protected]   Claims   0800 763 929 IAG after hours: 0800 227 653 [email protected]
Office Hours	Monday – Friday: 8.30 AM – 5.00 PM Saturday – Sunday: closed

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With a very good financial strength rating, Initio is capable of offering one of the best landlords’ insurance in New Zealand. That means that they will have no issues paying out even larger sums at claims time.

At Initio, everything is done online too, from getting a quote to lodging a claim. You can also upload the documents needed directly from your laptop or smartphone.

As for the benefits, you’re insured for loss of rent up to 12 months or $20,000, tenant damage up to $25,000, and meth cleanup and damage for up to $30,000. Of course, you are covered for loss or damage to other people’s property too.

And you won’t have to pay excesses for key or lock replacement and blocked underground pipes—no need to worry about the small stuff.

3)   AMI Landlords Insurance

Best for	Affordable premiums
Products	AMI Landlord Insurance
Benefits	Built-in Benefits   Rental house Meth contamination Accidental damage Hidden gradual damage Legal liability Natural disaster   Optional Extras   Excess-free glass or sanitary fixtures Theft or deliberate damage Landlord’s contents
Address	6 Show Place, 8024, Christchurch, New Zealand
Contact Details	0800 100 200 +64 3 371 9000
Office Hours	Monday – Friday: 8.00 AM – 6.00 PM Weekends and public holidays: 9.00 AM – 6.00 PM

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Need an affordable landlords’ policy? Well, you’ve found it with AMI landlords’ insurance.

Though it’s not the best in terms of cover, the insurance has the essentials to protect your rental from damage from sudden accidents, theft, and natural disasters.

Regarding the last one, it’s worth noting that the Earthquake Commission can cover your property if it’s destroyed by a natural disaster. But AMI can step in for you if there are remaining costs to settle.

The AMI landlords’ cover will also answer for the cost in case you damage someone’s property for up to $1M and contents for up to $20,000.

For optional extras, you can add the landlords’ content cover. Also, you don’t need to pay any excess for window and bathroom fixture damages.

4)   AA Landlords Insurance

Best for	24/7 customer support
Products	Landlord insurance
Benefits	Built-in Benefits   Replacement cover Loss of rent   Optional Extras   Extended Landlord cover Landlord Contents cover
Address	New Zealand-wide
Contact Details	Phone: 0800 500 231 Claims: 0800 500 216 Overseas: +64 9 927 2306 Email them here
Office Hours	Monday to Friday: 8.00 AM – 8.00 PM Weekends and public holidays: 8.00 AM – 6.00 PM

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AA Insurance takes pride in its simple and pain-free claims process. They have a customer manager who will constantly update you every step of the way.

Their landlord policy covers the complete cost of rebuilding or replacing your rental property if it is damaged in case of an accident, burglary, fire, and storm.

Loss of rent is also covered if your property is uninhabitable in the meantime. You won’t lose out in income as you’ll be compensated for up to $20,000 or 12 months’ rent.

And unless you get the Extended Landlord or Landlords’ Content add-on, you won’t be covered for deliberate tenant damage, meth contamination, furnishings, and others.

FAQS about the Top Landlords Insurance in NZ

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And that’s all for our list of best landlords’ insurance in NZ. With them, your rental business will be protected from harm and damage.

Do you have any questions or suggestions for us? If you do, kindly drop us a line, and we’ll reply promptly.

If you only need cover for your house, you could also check out our picks for the best house insurance in NZ!