The updated Apia Apartment Style Residence Insurance PDS

At Apia, we make sure our customers know for certain what their insurance covers. That’s why we’ve updated the Apia Apartment Style Residence Insurance Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to incorporate more plain English principles (like more descriptive headings).

We’ve also adjusted the policy’s coverage. This involved changing or adding 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 just 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.

Apia 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. Rest assured knowing we’ll always communicate when you need to pay any excess(es) to us. Alternatively, we’ll deduct the amount of any excess(es) from any cash payment we make.

There is no longer any scenario in which we’ll waive your excess.

We’ve updated the coverage to include items that are permanently attached to the apartment which are your household items and you use primarily for domestic purposes, like an air conditioner. That is unless the item(s) is covered under an insurance policy taken out by any owners corporation or similar body and/or is required to be insured by any owners corporation or similar body under the strata or community title laws applicable to that state or territory.

This doesn’t include items located in common property. Common property is any land or building (or any part of the building) at the insured address that is on a strata or community title which is required to be insured by the owners corporations or similar body under the relevant strata laws and/or is insured under an insurance policy taken out by them.

For example, if you have a washing machine within a communal laundry, it will not be covered for loss or damage under this policy.

Make sure that your contents sum insured meets your needs by checking with your body corporate, owners corporation, or similar body what is and isn’t covered by the policy taken out by them.

Please make sure to read the ‘General exclusions’ section of your PDS. General exclusions also apply to legal liability, but this isn’t always the case. Your PDS will outline when a general exclusion also applies to legal liability.

We want to be upfront about things we don’t cover for loss or damage under your policy. There are some new and some updated exclusions in the ‘General exclusions’ section of the PDS, such as:

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 wear, tear and 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 36 of the PDS.

We don’t cover legal liability for or caused by, connected with, or arising from riding any battery driven or electric scooters, skateboards, e-bicycles, unicycles, hoverboards, one-wheels, or segways.

There are many changes to the Escape of liquid clause, 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 contents 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 to see all these changes, starting on page 45.

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 to your contents due to a falling tree, or part of a falling tree including the roots, except when any of these are being carried in or moved by water or water is causing them to move.

For example, loss or damage to your contents (caused by impact) isn’t covered if the loss or damage is from a fallen tree being carried in a river.

We also won’t cover loss or damage to your contents caused by impact from any watercraft, aircraft, motor vehicles, or trailers if any of these are stationary.

Please read the new PDS to see what has changed.

There are additional covers that have been removed such as ‘Prevention of access’ and ‘Contents on common property’. There are also changes to limits for some additional covers such as ‘Food and medication spoilage’. Please see all ‘Additional covers that come with your policy’ starting on page 51 for more information.

We have removed the lifetime guarantee on authorised repairs from the PDS and follow the General Insurance (GI) Code of Practice.

This code, which commenced on 1 July 2021, provides universal benchmarks to adhere by. For example, if we have selected and directly authorised a repairer to repair your damaged property, then we will accept responsibility for the quality of their work and the materials they use, based on the standards outlined in this code.

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 any land or building (or any part of the building) on a strata 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 means physical damage, unless stated otherwise in your policy.