Finding Owner Occupied Home Insurance Valid with >1 Tenant

lethological on 05/07/2017 - 15:33
Last edited 05/07/2017 - 17:59

Recently come to the home owners market.

Financial plan after the first 6 months (to keep the first home owners grant) was always to rent out 2 of the 3 spare bedrooms.

However on finalising my insurance the agent said I could only have one tenant under my owner occupied insurance or my insurance would be invalidated

This was the insurance team from Westpac. I then tried youi but they made a similar statement.

However this is not clear or obvious in either PDS.

Anyone able to point out a reasonably priced and trustable source for insurance that does not get invalidated by having 2 or more tenants.

EDIT: I am looking for building insurance per terms of mortgage.

Many thanks

Comments

mskeggs on 05/07/2017 - 16:32

I don't know the answer, but you might find it more acceptable if you say you are taking in a boarder or two. A tenant is the more usual description of somebody who rents the whole premises.
You also don't say what insurance you are seeking. I imagine there could be different answers for building versus contents versus landlord insurance.
- lethological on 05/07/2017 - 18:00
  
  It's under owner occupied and I was clear as to the fact they would only be renting to room so I do not think the term here is the actual problem.
  - garetz on 05/07/2017 - 18:26
    
    Owner occupier insurance only allows for 1 tennant. There is no way around that.
    - mskeggs on 05/07/2017 - 18:56
      
      I'm not sure why you are stating that with such authority.
      I just had a look at our GIO PDS, and it does cover a bunch of things related to tenants, but not others. It doesn't say anything about a maximum number of tenants.
      I also had a look at an NRMA PDS and it seems more generous toward tenants, pretty much treating them like family members. Again, no mention of exclusions for more than one tenant.
      
      Would your answer be different if it was a couple renting one room? What about two rooms with two people on a single lease?
      And note the OP is only after building insurance.
      If I was the OP I would call and ask what clauses apply any limitation on cover where there are two rooms let out.