waterdamagequotesStorm, flood and escape of water are three different claims
Australians use “flood” to mean a lot of unwanted water. Insurers use it to mean water that escaped from one of seven listed things. The gap between those two usages produces more declined claims in this country than anything else.
Australians use “flood” to mean any large amount of unwanted water. Insurers do not, and the gap between those two usages produces more declined claims in this country than any other single thing.
Here is the one line that contains all three words:
Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 19(1)(a)(xiv) · 2021 compilation, read 20 September 2026
Storm and flood sit in the same subparagraph, which is exactly why insurers who cover one and not the other have to be precise about which water did the damage.
Nine events, one subparagraph. And separately, in its own subparagraph:
Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 19(1)(a)(vi) · 2021 compilation, read 20 September 2026
This is the provision that puts burst pipes, split flexible hoses, failed hot water units and overflowing cisterns inside standard cover. It says nothing about how old the pipe was.
The three claims, side by side
| Escape of water | Storm | Flood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provision | reg 19(1)(a)(vi) |
reg 19(1)(a)(xiv) | reg 19(1)(a)(xiv) + reg 34(1) |
| What it is | Fixed plumbing failed | Weather acted on the building | Water left a listed water body |
| Usually included? | Yes, in most home policies | Yes | Priced separately, and sometimes declined |
| Typical excess | Standard | Standard | Often a separate, larger flood excess |
| Water category on arrival | Usually Category 1 | Category 1 to 2 | Category 3 |
| What gets thrown out | Often nothing, if drying starts fast | Underlay, insulation, wet plaster | Porous materials below the water line, as a rule |
| Who else turns up | A plumber | A roofer, sometimes the SES | The SES, and possibly a council or state recovery program |
The bottom two rows are the ones restoration companies care about and insurers price on. Flood water is Category 3 by definition — it has crossed ground, it has been in contact with whatever the ground had on it, and it is treated as grossly contaminated. That is why a flood claim and an escape-of-water claim of identical volume produce completely different scopes of works.
What to write on the claim form
Describe what happened, not what you think it was. “Water came in” is useless. “Creek at the rear rose over the bank at about 3am and entered through the back door” tells the insurer exactly which provision it is dealing with, and so does “flexible hose under the vanity failed, water ran for approximately four hours overnight, plumber capped it at 6.40am”.
The three things an assessor needs in the first sentence:
- Where the water came from, physically. A pipe, the sky, a creek, the street.
- When it started and when it stopped. Duration is what separates reg 19(1)(a)(vi) from reg 19(2)(b).
- How it got into the building. Through the roof, up through the floor, under a door, out of a wall.
Do not guess the category. If you are not certain whether the water came out of a watercourse, say so and say what you do know. A claim lodged with a confidently wrong cause takes longer to fix than one lodged a day later with the right one, because the file now has a version of events in it that you have to walk back.
Same water, different scope of works
Get quotes from restoration companies advertising for your postcode.
When both happened at once
This is the genuinely difficult case and it is common in Australian east-coast events: a storm takes tiles off the roof at 11pm, the creek comes over at 2am, and by morning the house is wet from above and below. The policy covers storm and excludes flood, or covers both with different excesses.
What the insurer must do is work out what damage each event caused and respond to the covered one. What it often does first is note the flood and stop. Three things help:
- Photograph the water line. Flood water leaves one. Rain from above does not. A tide mark 300mm up a wall and a soaked ceiling in the same room are two different events with two different signatures.
- Get the timing down. Anything wet before the creek arrived is not flood damage. Text messages, call logs and weather radar timestamps are all evidence.
- Ask for the reports. General Insurance Code of Practice, paragraph 82 entitles you to copies of the service supplier and external expert reports the insurer relied on, within 10 business days of asking. An apportionment you cannot see is an apportionment you cannot challenge.
Action of the sea is its own thing again
Reg 19(1)(a)(xiv) names the action of the sea and high water separately from both storm and flood. Storm surge, king tides and coastal inundation are therefore a third category, and a policy that covers flood does not necessarily cover them. For anything on a Australian coastal strip this distinction is worth checking before you need it, not after.
Get quotes for storm, flood or escape of water
Restoration companies advertising for your postcode. Tell them which of the three it was — it changes the equipment they bring.
Your enquiry is ready to send
Here is what happens after you submit:
- Your answers go to restoration companies that advertise for your postcode.
- No more than three of them may contact you, using the details you gave.
- You decide who, if anyone, you use. You are committed to nothing, and this does not lodge, alter or affect an insurance claim.
We are not a restoration company and we do not attend, assess or repair anything.
Common questions
What is the difference between storm and flood cover?
They are separate events listed together at reg 19(1)(a)(xiv) of the Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017. Storm is weather acting on the building. Flood is water that escaped from a lake, river, creek, natural watercourse, reservoir, canal or dam, as reg 34(1) defines it. A policy can cover one and not the other and most Australian policies price them apart.
Do all Australian home policies include flood cover?
No. Flood is commonly sold as an included-but-priced component, and in some higher-risk areas it is offered with a large flood excess or declined. Check the schedule, not the brochure -- the schedule is the document that says what you actually bought.
What is 'escape of water' as distinct from storm or flood?
Reg 19(1)(a)(vi): the bursting, leaking, discharging or overflowing of fixed apparatus, fixed tanks or fixed pipes. It is the plumbing category, it has nothing to do with weather, and it is the most commonly claimed of the three.
What if storm and flood both happened?
That is the hardest claim in this field and it is genuinely contested. Where a storm damaged the roof and a creek also broke its banks, the insurer has to apportion, and how it does that is exactly the sort of decision AFCA reviews.
Sources cited on this page
- Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth)
- Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 19(1)(a)(xiv)
- Insurance Contracts Regulations 2017 (Cth) reg 34(1)
- General Insurance Code of Practice (2020 Code, October 2023 update)
Every figure above was read from the source it is attributed to on 20 September 2026. How we check this.