- Home
- Home Insurance
- Articles
- Are kitchen appliances covered by contents insurance?
Mark Bristow
-
3
min read
Key highlights
Many kitchen appliances count as part of your home’s contents for insurance purposes. However, some insurers could consider certain built-in appliances to be part of your building, meaning they may only be covered under a building insurance policy.
What’s the difference between home insurance and contents insurance?
Home insurance is sometimes called home-only insurance or building insurance. These policies only cover the physical structure of your property if it is damaged or destroyed by an insured event. Other permanent structures on your property may also be covered under a home insurance policy, such as your fences, sheds, and swimming pools.
Contents insurance covers the possessions you keep inside your property, such as your clothes, electronics, furniture, books, and more. If these contents are lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed in an insured event, the insurer can have your possessions repaired or replaced, often with new-for-old replacements.
Depending on your situation, you may be in the market for a home-only insurance policy, a contents-only insurance policy, or a combined home and contents insurance policy. For example, landlords may only take out home insurance policies on their investment properties, while their tenants may take out their own contents-only insurance policies on the possessions kept inside their rented home.
Are kitchen appliances considered contents?
It's often clear what should be covered under the home or contents insurance policy. For example, if your roof collapsed, home insurance would cover the cost of repairs, while if a burglar stole your TV, replacing it should be covered under contents insurance.
Many kitchen appliances may be considered contents, as they’re movable goods that you keep in your home. A freestanding fridge or cooker may be covered by your contents insurance policy if they were to experience damage in an insured event, such as fusion damage following an electrical storm or power surge.
But sometimes it’s not quite so clear. Insurers may define different types of kitchen appliances as eitherFixtures or Fittings, which will affect whether they should be covered by your home or contents insurance.
Fixtures
If a kitchen appliance is physically attached to your home (e.g. bolted, nailed or glued into place), hard-wired into the mains power, or plumbed into the water supply, and you likely won’t consider taking it with you when you move out, it may be considered a fixture. This could include built-in air conditioners, ceiling fans, cooktops, and the like.
As fixtures are considered to be part of the home itself, they will often be covered as part of your building insurance policy, rather than being considered contents.
Fittings
Kitchen appliances that are only semi-attached to your home and are capable of being removed may be considered fittings by your insurer. This means they may be considered contents, and covered under a contents insurance policy.
Some insurers (though not all) also consider carpets, blinds and curtains to be fittings, rather than fixtures – even though these are often attached to the home, they can still be removed, and thus may be counted as part of your home’s contents.
Some kitchen appliances may occupy something of a grey area. For example, some fridges may be built into your kitchen’s cabinets, but if they haven’t also been hard-wired into your home’s power supply, the insurer may still consider them fittings rather than fixtures.
If you’re uncertain whether a specific kitchen appliance may be counted as part of your home insurance or your contents insurance, read your PDS and/or contact your insurer.
Compare home insurance
Provider
Storm, fire & theftFloodUnderinsure protection
Included
Included
Optional
More details
Product info
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
Included
Included
Optional
Product info
Contents Cover
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Included
Included
Optional
Product info
Basic Contents
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Included
Included
Optional
Product info
Comprehensive Contents
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Product database updated 27 May, 2024
This article was reviewed by
External Comms Lead
Eden Radfordbefore it was published as part of RateCity's Fact Check process.
Personal Finance Editor
Mark Bristow is RateCity's Home & Personal Finances Editor, and an experienced analyst, researcher, and producer. Focused primarily on Australian mortgage and home loan expertise, he has been a journalist and writer in the financial space for over ten years, previously researching and writing commercial real estate at CoreLogic. In the years since, Mark has worked for the Winning Group, Expedia, and has seen articles published at Lifehacker and Business Insider.
Mark Bristow is RateCity's Home & Personal Finances Editor, and an experienced analyst, researcher, and producer. Focused primarily on Australian mortgage and home loan expertise, he has been a journalist and writer in the financial space for over ten years, previously researching and writing commercial real estate at CoreLogic. In the years since, Mark has worked for the Winning Group, Expedia, and has seen articles published at Lifehacker and Business Insider.
Share this page
Latest home insurance news
Promoted home insurance
Home & Contents
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
Policy type
Home and Contents
Combined policy discount
More details
Product info
Home & Contents
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Policy type
Home and Contents
Combined policy discount
Product info
Basic
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Policy type
Home and Contents
Combined policy discount
Product info
Comprehensive
- Flexible excess
- 24 hours claim lodgement
- Combined policy discount
Policy type
Home and Contents
Combined policy discount
Product info
Product data updated on 27 May 2024
Latest home insurance articles
More articles