Hi community. Still grappling with the Australian insurance dilemna. Our home insurers Citibank have just let us know that our current home and contents insurance is invalid if we make a claim while the room down stairs is on airbnb. This is because the house is no longer residental, which is what we signed up for when we took out the insurance before we started the airbnb (simple house and contents).
In other words, if the house burnt down in a bush fire and was totally unrelated to any damage/fault etc by the airbnb guest downstairs, they will decline any claim!!! Yikes! Even if there happens to be no-one in the airbnb when the the incident occured. In fact, they said ANY CLAIM for ANYTHING we make while we advertise as airbnb is invalid!!n Double Yikes!!
How on earth do we get around this. That is, to make sure our home and contents insurance is honoured while we have Airbnb guests downstairs? To be specific, this is not about getting landlord insurance or similar for damage by Airbnb guests to the airbnb room (i know i can get cover for that space) or that might effect our home... rather to ensure our home building and contents are insured if someone broke into our home upstairs, or if there was a fire, or a flood, NOT caused by the airbnb guest. My understanding is that home insurance companies will only pay out if your home is only used as a home - not as accommodation. Does that make sense? Any help here would be GREATLY appreciated. 🙂 cheers,