Who actually insures a Trade Me house policy
Trade Me Insurance is a brand, not an insurer. House cover sold under it is underwritten by Tower, which means Tower carries the risk, Tower writes the wording, and Tower settles the claim.
Tower says so itself. The Trade Me relationship is named in Tower’s own house wording, so this is not an inference from similar language. It is stated by the company doing the underwriting.
Knowing that changes what a Trade Me quote is worth as a comparison. Getting a quote from Trade Me Insurance and a quote from Tower does not give you two independent views of your house. It gives you one insurer’s view, priced twice.
House Plus carries Tower’s Plus limits
The relationship goes further than shared underwriting, and it can be checked rather than assumed.
Tower publishes a comparison table across its own levels of house cover. Standard is the entry level, then Plus, then Premium. Read the Trade Me House Plus limits against that table and they line up with the Plus column.
Temporary accommodation is twenty five thousand dollars in both. Hidden gradual water damage is two thousand in both. Keys and locks is one thousand in both. A house under minor alteration is twenty thousand in both. The stress lump sum is one thousand in both, and Tower’s Standard level does not include it at all.
The structural benefits match too. The extended sum insured for fire is the sum insured plus twenty per cent. Demand surge protection is ten per cent. Liability protection is twenty million dollars, with bodily injury sitting separately at one hundred thousand.
The practical reading is short. Trade Me House Plus is Tower Plus, sold under a different name. If you want to know whether the cover suits your house, the Tower Plus wording answers the same question.
That does not make it a worse policy. It makes it the same policy, and the honest comparison is on price, on service, and on which brand you would rather deal with at claim time.
What counts as the house
House insurance covers the building and the permanent structures around it, not the things inside. Furniture, clothes and appliances are contents insurance, which is a separate policy.
The Trade Me wording includes retaining walls that are essential for holding up or positioning your buildings. Garden retaining walls, meaning the ones that are not doing that structural job, are covered up to twenty five thousand dollars in total.
Above that figure they are not covered at all unless they are named on your certificate of insurance, which is the document listing your address and your cover. The same is true of special features. If they are not on the certificate, they are excluded.
A handful of things are excluded outright. Loose floor coverings, drapes and blinds, temporary structures, unsealed driveways and paths, stock fences, yards and pens, and any swimming or spa pool designed to be taken apart or moved.
That list of exclusions is worth reading against your own section. An unsealed gravel drive is common in New Zealand and is not insured here.
What is included as standard
These are the House Plus limits, with the Tower level each one matches noted where Tower publishes a figure to compare it with.
A bigger number does not mean better cover. Landscaping is the clearest example on this page. Two thousand dollars sounds generous until you read that it answers to fire and vehicle impact, and not to a storm.
| Benefit | What it covers | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of settlement | How a claim is paid, and what caps it. | Replacement to sum insuredThe same basis on House Plus and on Landlord’s Plus. |
| Damage caused by a natural hazard | Earthquake, flood, landslip and the other natural hazards, claimed through the Commission first. | The gap between your Commission cover and your sum insuredAn extra $5,000 excess applies to a driveway, path, fence, or swimming or spa pool damaged by a hazard. |
| Extended sum insured for fire | Extra cover above the sum insured where fire destroys the house. | Sum insured plus 20%Not for a fire that a natural hazard started. The same figure Tower publishes at every one of its levels. |
| Demand surge protection | An allowance above the sum insured for building costs rising sharply after a large regional event. | 10%Switched off where the extended sum insured for fire applies, so the two do not stack. |
| Liability protection | What you owe others for damaging their property, arising from owning the house. | $20 millionThe same figure Tower carries. $20 million for the year in total. |
| Bodily injury | Liability for injuring a person, listed separately from property damage. | $100,000 per event |
| Temporary accommodation | Somewhere else to live while the house cannot be lived in. | $25,000 per eventTower’s Plus figure exactly. Not available on a holiday home, on a hidden gradual damage claim, or where the house had been empty more than 90 days. |
| Hidden gradual water damage | Repair of hidden damage, decay, mildew, mould or rot from a leak in the plumbing built into the house. | $2,000 per eventTower’s Plus figure. The pipe has to be part of the permanent internal system and hidden inside walls, floors, ceilings or cupboards. |
| House under minor alteration | Non-structural work that does not need a building consent, plus the materials for it. | $20,000 per eventTower’s Plus figure. Plumbing and electrical work only counts if a qualified person did or approved it. |
| Keys and locks lost or stolen | Replacing keys or locks, or changing codes, where keys are lost, stolen or copied without permission. | $1,000, no excessTower’s Plus figure. Not available if you have told them the house is a holiday home. |
| Stress benefit lump sum | A payment where the whole house is destroyed. | $1,000 per eventTower’s Plus figure. Tower’s Standard level does not include this at all. |
| Garden retaining walls | Retaining walls that are not structurally holding up a building. | $25,000 in totalWalls above that have to be named on your certificate of insurance, or they are excluded outright. |
| Landscaping | Replacing lawn, flowers, trees, hedges or shrubs damaged when the house is damaged. | $2,000 per eventMuch narrower than the figure suggests. It responds to fire, or vehicle impact on an accepted claim. Not to storm. |
| Sustainability upgrade | Adding or upgrading to approved sustainable products when the house is rebuilt. | $15,000Only where the house was uneconomic to repair, and not where a natural hazard caused the loss. |
| Glass breakage reduced excess | A lower excess where the claim is only for broken glass. | $200 excess |
| One event, one excess | A single event that damages several things attracts one excess rather than one per item. | IncludedWhere excesses differ, you pay the higher one. |
Three excesses that are easy to miss
The excess is the first part of a claim you pay yourself, and the wording adds two more on top of the ordinary one.
The first applies to natural hazards. Where a hazard damages a driveway, a path, a fence, or a swimming or spa pool, an additional five thousand dollar excess applies to that part of the claim. Those are the parts the Natural Hazards Commission does not cover, so the private policy is picking them up and charging for the privilege.
The second applies to empty houses. Where the house has been unoccupied for more than ninety consecutive days, an additional one thousand dollar excess applies. It does not apply to a natural hazard, a fire that a hazard started, a fire nobody set deliberately, or a storm or flood from a weather event.
The third runs in your favour. Where one event triggers several parts of the policy, only one excess applies, and where the excesses differ you pay the higher of them.
Glass gets its own treatment. A claim only for broken glass carries a two hundred dollar excess rather than your usual one.
Empty houses and holiday homes
Ninety consecutive days is the line in this wording, and crossing it does two things.
It adds the thousand dollar excess described above. It also removes temporary accommodation from a claim, because that benefit is not available where the house had been empty for more than ninety days when the loss happened.
A holiday home is treated differently again. Telling Trade Me the house is a holiday home switches off two benefits outright. Keys and locks does not apply, and neither does temporary accommodation.
Neither of those is unreasonable for a house nobody lives in, but both are easy to be surprised by. If the house is a bach, the cover you are buying is narrower than the benefits table suggests at first reading.
Slow leaks, and where the two thousand dollars stops
A hidden leak is how most New Zealand houses get quietly damaged, and every insurer writes a narrow exception into an otherwise firm exclusion.
Trade Me pays up to two thousand dollars for each event for repairing hidden gradual damage, deterioration, mildew, mould or rot. Two conditions have to be met, and both are narrower than they sound.
The leak has to be in the permanent internal water system of the house. And it has to be hidden from view, because it sits inside the walls, cupboards, floors, ceiling or roof.
The benefit also only applies where the leak first happened while they were insuring you. A problem you inherited with the house is not covered by this clause.
Two thousand dollars will not rebuild a wet wall. What it does is take the edge off an early find, which is a reason to look under the sink rather than a reason to relax.
How a natural hazard claim actually works
Natural hazard damage in New Zealand comes in two layers, and the Trade Me wording is unusually direct about the order they run in.
The first layer is the Natural Hazards Commission. Every household policy that includes fire pays a levy to it, and it covers a set amount of natural hazard damage to your house. The second layer is your private policy, which covers the rest.
The wording says you must claim under the Commission first. What Trade Me then pays is the difference between your Commission cover and your sum insured, less any excess. Your sum insured is still the ceiling on the whole thing.
Two benefits behave differently on a hazard claim. The extended sum insured for fire does not apply where a natural hazard started the fire, so an earthquake fire is capped at your sum insured rather than at your sum insured plus twenty per cent. The sustainability upgrade does not apply to a natural hazard loss at all.
Demand surge protection is the one that does apply, and it is designed for exactly this situation. After a large regional event, builders and materials get scarce and prices rise. The benefit adds ten per cent above the sum insured to absorb some of that. It is switched off where the extended sum insured for fire is running, so the two never stack.
What the policy does not cover
Most of the exclusions here are the ones every New Zealand house policy carries. Wear and tear, gradual deterioration outside the hidden water benefit, faulty workmanship, pests, mechanical breakdown, and damage that was there before you insured the house.
Three of the item exclusions are worth naming, because they describe things people assume are part of the house.
Unsealed driveways and paths are excluded. A gravel drive is common in New Zealand, and it is not insured under this wording. Stock fences, yards and pens are excluded, which matters on a lifestyle block. Any swimming or spa pool designed to be taken apart or picked up and moved is excluded, so a soft-sided or above-ground pool is outside the policy even though a permanently installed one is not.
Floor coverings that are not fixed in place, drapes and blinds, and temporary structures are also out. Those are contents items rather than building items on most policies, which is where they belong, and this site does not cover contents insurance.
The rule that catches people out most often is the one about specifying. Garden retaining walls over twenty five thousand dollars and special features are not merely capped if they are missing from your certificate of insurance. They are excluded.
The landlord version
Landlord’s Plus is the same policy with an extra set of benefits, and it carries the same basis of settlement and the same core limits.
Deliberate damage by a tenant is covered to twenty thousand dollars. Landlord’s whiteware and window coverings are covered to twenty thousand dollars. Methamphetamine decontamination is covered to thirty thousand dollars.
Loss of rent runs on two clocks. Eight months where the house is damaged, and eight weeks where rent stops for other reasons.
Temporary accommodation does not appear in the landlord column, which makes sense. You are not the one living there.
What to check before you buy
These are the places where this wording gives a different answer depending on your house rather than on the policy.
Worth settling first:
- Whether you are also holding a Tower quote, and that Trade Me House Plus is the Tower Plus wording.
- Whether your garden retaining walls are worth more than twenty five thousand dollars, and whether they are named on your certificate of insurance.
- Whether your driveway is sealed, since an unsealed one is excluded.
- Whether the house is ever empty for ninety days, and what that does to your excess and your accommodation cover.
- Whether you have told them it is a holiday home, and that this removes keys and locks and temporary accommodation.
- Whether the things you are relying on for storm damage are actually covered for storm, or only for fire and vehicle impact.
Common questions
- Who underwrites Trade Me Insurance house cover?
- Tower. Tower carries the risk, writes the wording and settles the claim, and names the Trade Me relationship in its own house policy wording.
- Is Trade Me House Plus the same as Tower Plus?
- On the benefit limits it reads that way. Temporary accommodation, hidden gradual water damage, keys and locks, minor alteration and the stress payment all carry the figures Tower publishes for its Plus level, and the structural benefits match too. Getting quotes from both brands gives you one insurer’s view of your house at two prices.
- What extra excesses does Trade Me apply?
- An additional five thousand dollars for natural hazard damage to a driveway, path, fence or pool, and an additional one thousand dollars where the house has been empty for more than ninety consecutive days. A glass-only claim carries a reduced two hundred dollar excess instead of your usual one.
- Are retaining walls covered by Trade Me Insurance?
- Walls essential for holding up or positioning your buildings are part of the house. Garden retaining walls are covered to twenty five thousand dollars in total, and anything above that is excluded unless it is named on your certificate of insurance.
- Does a Trade Me holiday home policy cover temporary accommodation?
- No. Where you have told them the house is a holiday home, temporary accommodation does not apply, and neither does the keys and locks benefit.