‍Wellington leads New Zealand in coffee, craft beer, gin, bucket fountains … and the very best fault line! We win at everything. And now also add high insurance premiums to that list. Yay!

Historically, our insurance premiums have not reflected the fact we’re living on such a lustrous fault line—but they are starting to. Insurance companies are very nervous about what an earthquake in Wellington would cost them and have started to prepare for a shaky day ahead.

Of course, they prepare for that day by putting premiums up and by making sure they have a comfortable level of exposure in Wellington i.e. each company will only take a certain number of commercial buildings and/or houses.

What this means for me as a homeowner/buyer/seller is that I need to give more thought to my house insurance. Premium increases are a given, but the good news is that home insurance is still available.

When buying we obviously just need to plan ahead of time by arranging cover for the new house.  

Marie from Thorners says it best: “Don’t expect to ring an insurer and get cover sorted the day you take possession of your new home!” 

We encourage people to make sure they can obtain insurance cover before they enter into an agreement to buy a property. This includes undertaking your due diligence when buying any house to understand its full history, particularly if the property has previously suffered form earthquake damage. Irrespective of whether you think it might only be cosmetic, before your cover is confirmed, insurers will ask for a lot of information like claim reports, scope of repairs, evidence the repairs have been completed and so on. All of this takes time, so don’t leave it to the last minute.

Velocity has a range of companies we have relationships with to help with house insurance, so please ring if you are running into difficulty or need a second opinion. 

Graham Goodisson is a Registered Financial Adviser with Velocity Financial. No investment decision should be taken based on the information in this blog alone. A disclosure statement is available free of charge upon request.