Documents
Exclusions explained
An exclusion is a printed event or circumstance the policy will not pay, even if a brochure said “cover”. Search the PDS for “we will not”, then test flood, storm, storm surge and any other name for the water or risk you actually face. A cheaper premium that omitted that event is a different product.
- Home
- The “we will not pay” chapter
- Water
- Flood, storm, surge and sea are not synonyms
- Test
- Would this wording pay the event I named?
- Cheap
- A missing event is a thinner product
Direct answer
What is an exclusion — and does home cover include flood and storm? An exclusion is a printed refusal. The policy will not pay (or will only pay in a narrow way) for a named event, cause, person or circumstance. Storm and flood are not automatically the same event. Many Australian home wordings define them separately. A product can respond to storm damage and still exclude flood, storm surge, or actions of the sea. Flood may be included, excluded, or sold as an option. The Product Disclosure Statement — not a tile that says “weather cover” — decides.
A cheaper premium that omitted the water that actually enters your house is not a comparison win. It is a different product.
This page is general information. It is not a flood map, not a legal opinion, and not a statement about any named current policy. Eligibility and wording differ. Read the pack you are given.
Where exclusions hide
People look for a chapter titled “Exclusions” and stop. Issuers also hide refusals in:
- Definitions. If “flood” does not mean the water you mean, the inclusion is theatre.
- Conditions. Unoccupancy, unroadworthy vehicles, security warranties, maintenance.
- Limits and sub-limits. A zero practical payout is an exclusion by arithmetic.
- Endorsements. A schedule note that removes a room, a fixture, or a peril.
- Application answers. A use or person you did not list can act like an exclusion at claim time.
What is a PDS is the search method. Open the PDF and hunt “we will not”, “not covered”, “except”, “unless”, and the event in your brief.
MoneySmart’s home insurance page is the consumer-language start for property. The PDS remains the product.
Flood, storm and the other names for water
Water is where Australian households most often discover that English is not a policy. Words vary by issuer. The table is a reading prompt, not a legal dictionary and not a claim that every PDS uses these labels.
| Word you may see | Why it is not a synonym | What to do on the sheet |
|---|---|---|
| Storm | Often about wind, rain, hail, lightning — check the definition | Write the exact clause |
| Flood | Often about water escaping a watercourse or similar — check the definition | Included, excluded, or optional? |
| Storm surge / action of the sea | Coastal water can sit outside “storm” and outside “flood” | Separate row |
| Rainwater / stormwater / runoff | Escape from drains or surfaces may be carved in or out | Separate row |
| Sudden leak versus seepage | Maintenance and gradual damage are classic refusals | Ask “would a slow stain pay?” |
| Tsunami / earthquake / cyclone | Sometimes extra excesses or extra exclusions | Event-specific excess row too |
If you live with a river, a creek that only exists in February, a canal, or a coastline, write the water you have seen or been warned about — then find that water in the PDF. If you cannot find it, you do not yet have a comparable quote.
Flood options that add premium are extra products. Comparing an included-flood quote to an excluded-flood quote and calling the second cheaper is the sandwich-versus-bread error from how to compare.
A perfect flood clause does not rescue a sum insured that cannot rebuild. Pair this page with underinsurance and the home type hub.
Exclusions that are not weather
The same literacy applies to other families. Again: prompts, not a complete code.
Car. Drink or drugs, unroadworthy, racing, unlicensed or undeclared drivers, business or rideshare on a private-use policy, some modifications. See car insurance and the excess stack that can apply even when the event is covered.
Health and extras. Pre-existing rules, restricted clinical categories, cosmetic, some dental. Waits are the time sibling — waiting periods and health.
Travel. Known events, some sports, some destinations, pregnancy, mental health, alcohol, valuables left unattended. Card extras have their own lists.
Pet. Pre-existing, congenital, bilateral, some breeds or dental. A wait that has elapsed does not resurrect an excluded condition.
Life and income protection. Suicide clauses (timing is product-specific), war, criminal act, own-occupation versus any-occupation definitions that feel like exclusions in practice.
Business. Professional advice given on a public-liability wording, or the reverse; work on a site the PDS never contemplated.
Do not memorise this list. Search the event you named.
How to compare exclusions without a lawyer
- Write the event in plain Australian: “water over the riverbank into the laundry”; “hail through the windscreen”; “knee reconstruction next winter”; “the dog’s already-diagnosed skin condition”.
- Search each PDS for that event and every lookalike word in the table.
- Mark yes / no / optional / unclear. Unclear is a stop. Ask for the clause in writing.
- Note conditions that act like exclusions (unoccupancy, warranties, listed items).
- Only then put the quoted premium in the last column.
If quote B is cheaper and the event is “no”, you have a thinner product. You may still buy it if you accept the gap. You may not call it a saving.
The quotes checklist is the full sheet. This page is row 8.
Exclusions, excesses and “we will pay but not much”
A payable event can still feel like an exclusion after a percentage excess, a tiny sub-limit, or a betterment reduction. Do the arithmetic. What affects premiums explains why leaving an event out lowers the price: the issuer kept less residual risk.
Optional extras that “buy back” an exclusion are extra products. Putting a buy-back on one quote and not the other makes the premiums incomparable.
Claims that die in this chapter
When a claim is declined as excluded, ask for the clause and the facts the insurer relied on. Read that clause in the issued PDS, not in a generic PDF. Claims basics covers notice, evidence and the path to internal dispute resolution.
AFCA can test a decision for many general-insurance complaints. It is not a way to rewrite a clear flood exclusion because the premium felt high. If the clause is ambiguous or misapplied, that is a different file.
If you are switching because you discovered an exclusion at claim time, do not cancel the old policy until a new wording that actually includes the event is on risk. See switching. Discovering the clause before the weather is the point of this guide.
Industry documents are not your PDS
The Insurance Council and other industry bodies publish useful background on codes and, at times, flood language. Treat those as industry documents, not as the contract you bought. The schedule and PDS win. Our methodology prefers primary documents for that reason.
Maintenance, unoccupancy and the “you should have fixed it” family
Not every refusal is a named peril. Many wordings will not pay for wear, gradual deterioration, lack of maintenance, or damage that grew because a small leak was left. Those clauses are how a storm claim becomes an argument about rusted screws.
Unoccupancy conditions appear on home and contents: a number of days the building can sit empty before cover changes. Travel, hospitals and vacant rentals trigger them. If you are about to leave the house empty, search that word before you leave.
Illegal use, unlicensed driving, and some criminal-act clauses sit on motor and liability products. They are not obscure. They are also not a reason to invent a story at the scene. Claims basics is the notice-and-evidence page.
A hypothetical water test — still no product named
You live near a watercourse that broke its bank last decade. Quote A includes a flood definition you can map to that water. Quote B is a lower premium and excludes flood, or treats it as an option you did not tick. Quote C says “storm” in large type and defines storm in a way that never mentions a watercourse.
On the sheet, the event is “watercourse over the bank into the laundry”. A is the only column that might pay that event — subject to every other clause, the excess, and the sum insured. B and C are different products. If you buy B because the tile was cheaper, you have accepted a gap. Write the sentence. Do not let a future you remember it as “I thought weather was covered”.
That is the whole discipline. How to compare exists because advertising wants the sentence to be shorter.
What we will not do with exclusions
- State that a named current home product includes flood in your postcode.
- Rank issuers by “fairest exclusions”.
- Publish a map that replaces a local overlay or a hydrologist.
- Invent a typical extra premium for adding flood.
- Treat Compare offers as a flood-checker. It is a stub.
If you cannot find “we will not pay”, you are not comparing yet. If you found it and the event is out, write that on the sheet in words a future you will not soften.
The disclaimer is the legal boundary: general information, eligibility, PDS. Bundling is the warning against keeping a thin home wording because the car discount was tidy.
Frequently asked questions
What is an insurance exclusion?
An exclusion is a clause that removes or limits payment for a named event, cause, person, place or circumstance. It sits in the PDS, sometimes in definitions, sometimes in “what is not covered”, sometimes in both. Marketing inclusions do not override it.
Does home insurance cover flood and storm?
Storm and flood are often defined separately. A product can pay for storm damage and still exclude flood, storm surge or actions of the sea — or treat flood as an option. Read the definitions and the exclusions for the water you actually face. We will not state what a named current product does.
How do I compare exclusions across quotes?
Write the event in your words, search each PDS for that event and its lookalikes, and mark yes / no / optional / unclear. If a quote is cheaper because the event is out, it is not a bargain. It is a different promise.