The refreshed Shannons Home and Contents Insurance PDS
At Shannons, we’re always looking for ways to make things easier for our customers. That’s why we’ve updated the Shannons Home and Contents Insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to incorporate more plain English principles (like more descriptive headings).
We’ve also made some changes to cover. We have changed and added covers, conditions and exclusions. We have listed some of these changes below. Know these changes relate to policies starting or renewing on or after 21 June 2025.
The information listed below is simply a summary and not an exhaustive list of all changes. So, we strongly encourage you to read the PDS in full to understand your cover.
A PDS is an important legal document that covers the details of the cover you’ve purchased. As it’s a legal document, it’s important you read it carefully.
Shannons is committed to ensuring its products are not used for any form of financial abuse. You’ll see we have made clear our position that the use of our products for financial abuse is unacceptable.
We know sometimes your circumstances might mean you need additional support or assistance in dealing with us. If you’re comfortable, you can tell us about your situation, and we’ll work with you to arrange support.
This section has changed. We’ll let you know when and how you need to pay your excess.
Alternatively, we may deduct the amount of any excess(es) from any cash payment we make.
Please read ‘Things to know upfront’ for more details, starting on page 5 of the PDS.
Please make sure you read the ‘General Exclusions’ section of your PDS. General Exclusions apply to the whole policy, some general exclusions don’t apply to legal liability. Your PDS will outline if we don’t cover your legal liability. We’ve changed how we refer to some exclusions, including:
- building works (this used to be called building extensions, alterations or renovations)
- hacking, cyber-attack, or cyber incident (this used to be called computer virus or computer hacking), and
- rust or corrosion (this used to be part of the wear, tear, mould and gradual deterioration exclusion).
There are also new Legal Liability exclusions:
We don’t cover legal liability due to silica in any form. Please read the exclusion in full for more detail on page 40 of your PDS.
We don’t cover legal liability for or caused by, connected with, or arising from any battery driven or electric scooters, skateboards, e-bicycles, unicycles, hoverboards, one-wheels, or segways.
We no longer cover the following events or circumstances:
- Prevention of access.
- Loss of rent due to prevention of access.
- Kitchen appliance heat.
- Cash, smart cards, phone cards, documents able to be cashed or traded, vouchers, tickets, money orders or stamps.
- Uncut gems, unset gems, gold or silver nuggets, bullion and ingots (not jewellery).
- Prevention of access.
- Vehicle injury to dogs or cats.
- Identify theft.
- Visitors’ contents.
- Financial transaction card cover.
There are many changes to the Escape of liquid insured event, and we strongly encourage you to read this section of your PDS in full.
These changes include providing cover for sudden and unexpected loss or damage to the building caused by liquid escaping from a number of listed items.
We also now provide cover for loss or damage, caused by liquid escaping from the items listed in the PDS, that has occurred gradually when the loss or damage, that was occurring, wasn’t easily visible to a reasonable person in the circumstances.
There are also updates to things we don’t cover under Escape of liquid too. Please read the new PDS for details, starting on page 51.
There are some changes to when and under what circumstances you’re covered for loss or damage caused by impact (or by power surge caused by impact).
You’re still covered for loss or damage caused by impact from a falling tree or part of a falling tree including the roots, except when the tree, a part of it, or its roots are being carried in or by water or water is causing them to move.
We also won’t cover loss or damage to the home or your contents if it’s caused by impact (such as by weight) from any watercraft, aircraft, motor vehicles, or trailers that are stationary.
There are changes to limits for some additional covers such as ‘Food and medication spoilage’. Please see the ‘Additional covers that come with your policy’ section starting on page 59 of your PDS for more information.
In our previous PDS, ‘Other repair/rebuilding costs’ and ‘Removal of debris’ were separate covers. We’ve combined them into one additional cover.
Now, on eligible claims, the most we’ll pay for any one incident is up to 15% of the home sum insured.
The combined additional cover ‘Emergency repairs and other repair/rebuilding costs’ provides cover for emergency repairs and make safe, and other repair/rebuilding costs (like architects’ fees and removal of debris that has damaged the home, when that damage is covered and removal of the debris is necessary to repair the damage). Read the PDS for more details on this cover.
There are improvements to the additional cover ‘Temporary accommodation’. This includes an extension of reasonable and necessary temporary accommodation costs beyond the current limit if there are delays to the repair or rebuild of your building that are outside of your control when a builder we have engaged is undertaking the repairs or rebuild. This can include delays because of labour or material shortages. It doesn’t include delays due to any pre-existing damage. The most we’ll pay for temporary accommodation costs due to the delay(s) is up to an extra 5% of the home sum insured.
Please see the PDS for more information including limits, conditions and exclusions that apply.
Some terms and words in the policy have a special meaning (definition) which applies to them.
It’s important to read this section of the PDS because it gives the meaning which applies to those terms and words which can impact how your policy is interpreted.
There are new definitions in your PDS, including changes to existing ones such as:
We’ve updated this definition to mean sudden loss or damage that you didn’t intend or expect to happen.
We’ve updated this to mean land or building (or any part of the building) on strata title or community title at the insured address which is required to be insured by the owners corporation or similar body under the relevant strata laws and/or is insured under an insurance policy taken out by the owners corporation or similar body.
For example, common property in a multi-dwelling development.
This refers to the timeframe from when the construction of a new building at the insured address begins until the time the building is ready to be moved into, electricity and water services are connected and there is no outstanding work or the only remaining work to be done is installation of floor coverings, internal painting or installation of light fittings.
This means physical damage, unless stated otherwise in your policy.
This term means a standalone wall that isn’t connected at either end to a building or other structure, and not restrained along the top, like a brick fence.