If your home insurance policy includes fire insurance (and most do) then you have natural hazards cover. The premium you pay your insurer includes the Natural Hazards Insurance levy, which gives you access to natural hazards insurance cover.
In the event your home or land has been damaged by a storm, flood, or landslide, you should contact your insurer to make a claim. They will assess and manage your claim from start to finish, including the natural hazard cover portion on our behalf. Your insurer is your single point of contact and can answer any questions you have.
If you have an insurance broker, contact them directly to confirm how they can assist you with your claim.
If your insurer does not partner with us, you want to discuss a claim made for damage that happened before 30 June 2021, or you are a Direct NHCover customer, please contact us.
Differences in cover for storm, flood and landslide
Following a severe weather event, there are some key differences between cover for landslide (also known as landslip) damage, and for storm and flood damage.
If you are affected by a landslide, NHC Toka Tū Ake provide cover for your home and your land.
If you are affected by a storm or flood, we provide cover for your land only, and your home would be covered by your private insurance. Following a storm or flood we can often help with the cost of cleaning up some part of your land. We can’t reimburse you for work you do yourself, but we can contribute to costs you might incur.
Land cover for storm and flood damage
If your property is damaged by storm or flood, any cover for damage to your home is agreed on through your private insurance policy. NHC Toka Tū Ake provide cover for certain areas of land under and around your insured home.
We provide some cover for damage to the land:
- under your home
- under insured separate buildings and structures
- within 8 metres of your home, separate buildings and structures
- under or supporting your main access way up to 60 metres from your home, for example under your driveway.
Any land outside of these areas is not insured.
We provide limited cover for bridges and culverts:
- that are located on the land that is within 8m of your home and insured separate buildings, or
- on the land under or supporting your main accessway, up to 60m from your home.
We provide limited cover for some retaining walls:
- that support or protect your home, insured separate buildings and insured land, and
- are within 60m of your home.
We can help with the cost of cleaning up your land
As a part of your land claim, we can often contribute to the cost of cleaning up the insured parts of your land, as part of your settlement.
We contribute to the costs of:
- removal of silt that is 15mm or deeper
- removal of debris
- repairing land scour (when the surface of land is washed away).
There is a maximum amount we can pay towards damage to your land including clean up, called the land cover cap. We can’t pay you for any work you do to clean up your land yourself.
Our natural hazards cover doesn’t usually cover artificial surfaces such as driveway surfacing, paving or concrete. However, these maybe covered by your private insurance policy, and we encourage you to talk to your insurer to understand what you’re covered for.
After a storm or flood, you may be left with a build-up of silt or storm debris on your land. As a part of your settlement we can contribute towards the costs to remove this from your insured land, but we are unable to pay you for any work you do yourself.
Silt build-up is often left behind after flooding and is made up of very fine particles that may be slippery when wet. If the buildup of silt on your land is more than 15 mm, it may need to be removed. We can contribute towards the cost of removing it off the insured parts of your land, including under your home, up to the land cover cap.
If the buildup of silt is less than 15 mm deep, you don’t usually need to remove it. The silt should disappear on its own within a few weeks and grass will regrow quite quickly.
You might also be left with debris such as rocks, fallen trees, broken fences, and other items that have been swept onto your property. As part of your settlement, we can contribute to the cost of removing debris from the insured parts of your land up to the land cover cap.
A build up of silt left on grass after flood
Land scour happens when the surface of land is washed away by flowing water. This often affects areas such as driveways. We can contribute to the cost of repairing land scour on your insured land as a part of your settlement , up to the land cover cap.
The way land scour is repaired will depend on the damage to your property. It can often be repaired with coarse inorganic fill, such as gravel.
Land scour on a driveway
Cover for landslide damage
If your property is damaged by a landslide (also known as a landslip), we provide the first layer of cover for your home, and cover for certain areas of land under and around your home.
There is a maximum amount that we can pay for damage to your home, called the building cover cap. This is generally $300,000 plus GST. Any cover over this amount is provided by your private insurance policy.
New Zealand is one of the only countries in the world to have natural disaster insurance that covers certain areas of land under and around your home. This includes limited cover for certain retaining walls, bridges and culverts that are on these parts of your land.
The land cover that we provide is limited and may not be enough to fully repair the damage to your property. It’s important that you know which parts of your land are included, and what is not covered.
Insurance claims for damage from landslides are often complex and take time to resolve. If you would like an update on your claim, please talk to your insurer to understand where they are at in the process.
Read more about cover for your home and land, including how much you are covered for on our About natural hazards cover page
