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homeinsurance.org.nz
A quiet suburban street of single-storey weatherboard homes with iron roofs and low front hedges.

How we get paid, and right now we do not

This site refers people to three insurance brands. Cove for most homes, FMG for farms and lifestyle blocks, and AA Insurance for apartments. We receive no commission, fee or payment for any of those referrals, and nothing on this site is sold. No brand can buy a position, a badge or a mention. We are not an insurer, not a broker, and not a registered financial adviser. Nothing here is a recommendation that any brand is right for any particular home.

What this site costs, and who pays for it

Nobody pays us anything. No insurer pays for a mention, a position, a badge or a description, and we take no commission when someone clicks through to get a quote. There is no advertising on the site and nothing on it is for sale.

What it costs to run is mostly time. Reading eight policy wordings line by line and writing them up took weeks, and keeping them current means doing it again each time a wording changes. On top of that there is a domain and some hosting, which is a small bill paid out of pocket.

That may change. If it ever does, this page changes on the same day, and it will say plainly what the arrangement is rather than folding it into a sentence somewhere. A site that starts taking money and updates its disclosure quietly is worse than one that never had a disclosure at all.

Why the button goes where it goes

The quote starter asks four questions and names a cover type. It then points at one brand, because a tool that names a cover type and leaves someone to work out where to go next is only half finished. Most homes go to Cove. Farms and lifestyle blocks go to FMG, which is a rural mutual and the largest rural insurer here. Apartments go to AA Insurance.

Those are our choices. They were not auctioned, nobody bid for them, and we are paid nothing for any of them. They are named on the result card before anyone clicks, so the choice is visible rather than buried.

The saving on the Cove button

That button says savings are applied, so here is exactly what it means. Cove runs a promotion for people who arrive through an approved partner's link: One month of free premiums. One month of free premiums, capped at $100 per month, per policy. Applied to the first month for monthly policies and pro-rata for annual ones. It can be used once per risk per customer, and it does not stack with Cove’s online free month or with Refer-A-Friend.

Two things worth knowing. Cove also gives a free month for buying online, and the two do not stack, so until that offer ends the partner promotion is the same saving arriving by a different route rather than an extra one on top. And it is Cove's promotion, not ours: we set none of the terms, we are paid nothing for it, and Cove can change or withdraw it.

Source: Cove promotional terms, coveinsurance.co.nz/promotional-terms/. Checked 2026-09-01.

The badges on the brand table

Some rows in the brand table sit at the top with a badge on them. Those are editorial choices and the badge says which one. They are not sponsorships, nobody has paid for one, and no brand has been asked for money or offered any.

The table briefly used the word Sponsored, which was wrong: it is a claim that money changed hands, made about real companies, and none had. That is why it says what it actually is now.

What we do not do

  • Take a commission, a fee or any payment for a referral.
  • Sell a position, a badge or a mention in the brand table.
  • Claim any brand is the cheapest or the best cover for any particular home.
  • Rank insurers, score them, or publish best-of lists.
  • Collect personal information, run quote forms, or pass details to anyone.
  • Describe this site as independent.

FAQ

Questions about the money

How does this site make money?

At the moment it does not. No insurer pays us anything, we take no commission on a referral, and nothing on the site is for sale. What it costs to run is our time, plus a domain and some hosting, and that is being paid for out of pocket.

Can a brand pay to appear higher in the table?

No. There are no paid placements here. Rows marked with a badge are an editorial choice and the badge says which one, and no brand has been asked for money or offered any. If that ever changes, the badge and this page change on the same day, and the change will say what it is rather than being folded into a sentence.

Why does the quote button go to one particular brand?

Because a tool that names a cover type and then leaves someone to work out where to go next is only half finished. Most homes go to Cove, farms and lifestyle blocks go to FMG, and apartments go to AA Insurance. Those are our choices, not the result of an auction, and we are paid nothing for any of them.

What is the saving the Cove button refers to?

Cove runs a promotion for people arriving through an approved partner link: one month of free premiums, capped at $100 per month per policy, applied to the first month and usable once per risk per customer. It is Cove’s promotion on Cove’s published terms, we receive nothing in connection with it, and it does not stack with Cove’s own online free month or their refer-a-friend benefit.

So why build it at all?

Because the policy wordings are public and almost nobody reads them, and the eight we have read line by line turned up things worth publishing. Whether this ever earns anything is a separate question from whether it is worth writing, and it is being written first.

Is this site independent?

No, and it does not describe itself that way. It sends people to brands it chose, which is a position even when nobody is paying for it. What it does commit to is that no payment could change what a page says, because there is no payment.

Does the arrangement change what is written about other insurers?

No. Every insurer is described from its own policy wording where we hold one, and this site publishes no rankings and no best-of lists in either direction. Where brands appear together the order is alphabetical, apart from a featured row which is marked as one.

What happens to my information when I click through?

Nothing is collected here to pass on. The quote starter runs entirely in the browser and no answers are transmitted or stored. Clicking through leaves this site, at which point that company’s privacy policy applies to whatever is entered there.

Disclaimer

General information only. Not personalised financial advice.

Home insurance is one of the few contracts most households hold for decades and read once. What a policy covers, what it excludes, and what has to be disclosed before it starts all vary between insurers and between versions of the same product, and the wording is what settles a claim. This site explains how the cover generally works so those conversations start from a better place. It is not a substitute for the policy document.

What this site is

An information site about insuring a home in New Zealand. Not an insurer, not a broker, not a registered financial adviser. Nothing here is personalised financial advice or a recommendation about any particular property.

What this site does not do

It publishes no premiums, no rebuild costs and no sum-insured figures, and nothing here estimates one. Those numbers come from an insurer's own calculator or a registered valuer, and getting them wrong is what underinsurance is made of.

What the insurer decides

Whether cover is offered, on what terms, at what price and with what exclusions is decided by the insurer, on the information given to them about the specific property.

Our relationship with Cove

This site refers people to three insurance brands. Cove for most homes, FMG for farms and lifestyle blocks, and AA Insurance for apartments. We receive no commission, fee or payment for any of those referrals, and nothing on this site is sold. No brand can buy a position, a badge or a mention. We are not an insurer, not a broker, and not a registered financial adviser. Nothing here is a recommendation that any brand is right for any particular home. Full disclosure on the partner page.

The policy wording decides

Every description of cover on this site describes what that type of cover generally does, not what any particular policy does. Limits, excesses, exclusions and conditions differ between insurers and change between versions, and the wording issued with a policy is the document that settles a claim.

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Important information

About this site, what it does not do, and your protections.

Last reviewed 1 September 2026.

1. What this site is

Homeinsurance.org.nz is an information site about insuring a home in New Zealand. We are not an insurer, not a broker, and not a financial adviser. We do not arrange, sell or underwrite insurance. We do not hold your money. We do not give regulated financial advice, as defined by the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 Part 6 and the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019. Nothing here is advice about your situation.

2. No premiums, no rebuild costs, no sum insured

This site publishes no prices, no rebuild costs and no sum insured figures, and nothing here guesses at one. A sum insured is what it would cost to rebuild one particular house. That number comes from an insurer’s calculator, or from a valuer who has seen the building. Where we explain what a sum insured is, we are explaining the idea. We are not giving you a figure.

3. The quote starter

The tool names a cover type based on how a home is used. It is not a quote. It is not an application. It does not mean cover is available or will be offered. Your answers stay in your browser and are not sent anywhere.

4. General information, not advice

Everything here is general information. It does not take account of your situation, your goals or your property. For a decision about cover, a licensed financial adviser or an insurance broker is the safer place to go. That is especially true if a property has past claims, a flood or earthquake risk, or building work that never got consent.

5. What the policy wording decides

When we describe cover, we describe what that kind of cover usually does. Limits, excesses, exclusions and conditions differ between insurers, and between versions of the same product. The document issued with your policy is the one that settles your claim. Where this site and that document disagree, the document wins.

6. Our relationship with Cove

Cove is the one brand we refer people to. We get no commission, fee or payment for it. No insurer pays us for a mention, a position or a write-up anywhere here. We do not claim Cove is the cheapest or the best cover for any home. Other insurers are described on their merits. This site is not independent, because it has one named partner, and we do not call ourselves independent. The full story is on our partner page. Cove is a brand, not an insurer. Its own documents name the company that carries the risk.

7. Privacy and personal information

Under the Privacy Act 2020, we run no forms and collect nothing about you. Your quote starter answers stay in your browser. They are never sent to a server we control. We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits, which tells us nothing about you personally. Click through to an insurer and you leave our site. From that point their privacy policy applies.

8. Duty of disclosure

New Zealand law says you have to tell an insurer the things they would want to know. The Contracts of Insurance Act 2024 changed how that works for everyday policies. A claim can be cut back or turned down over something you did not mention at the start. Building work, past claims, and stretches where the house sat empty are the usual ones. What any particular insurer needs is a question for them.

9. Fair dealing posture

This site follows the fair dealing rules in the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 Part 2 and the Fair Trading Act 1986. We also follow the Fair Insurance Code. We do not mislead, make things up, or state claims we cannot back. Facts and figures are either hedged or linked to the source. Those sources are the Natural Hazards Commission Toka TΕ« Ake, MBIE, Stats NZ, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Insurance Council of New Zealand, Tenancy Services, the Commerce Commission and the Financial Markets Authority.

10. Complaints

We do not sell insurance, so we cannot deal with a complaint about a policy. Take it to your insurer first. If they do not fix it, take it to their complaints scheme. Most New Zealand insurers belong to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman, which is free and independent.

11. Limitation of liability and governing law

As far as New Zealand law allows, Homeinsurance.org.nz and the people who run it are not liable for any loss or damage from using this site, or from relying on anything on it or linked from it. That covers direct and indirect loss. These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and any dispute goes to a New Zealand court.

Long form: terms, privacy, footer disclaimer.