Will Home Insurance Pay for Broken Glass in Tasmania?

Evidence first

Tick this off before anything is repaired, cleaned up or thrown out

Claims are lost on evidence far more often than they are lost on cover. Almost everything an assessor wants stops existing the moment you sweep up and put the glass in the bin. Work down this list in order, tick as you go, and print it if you would rather carry it around the house. Your ticks stay on this device.

1. Photograph before you move a single piece

Wide shot of the whole elevation or room, so the assessor can see where the broken window sits in the house.
One photo from inside and one from outside, with the full frame and the surrounding wall in shot.
Close-up of the break pattern itself, before any glass is lifted out of the rebate.
Photo of whatever caused it if it is still there: the rock, the branch, the ball, the hail on the ground.
If it was a break-in, photograph the forced lock, the pry marks on the sash and any disturbed ground outside.
Photograph wet carpet, stained plaster, damaged blinds and damaged contents in the same frame as the broken window, so the link is obvious.
Take a short phone video walking the scene. The file carries its own date and it captures things a still photo misses.

2. Measure and record the glass itself

Width and height of the visible glass in millimetres.
Thickness at a broken edge. Photograph it beside a coin or a ruler for scale.
Note the glass type: plain float, toughened (small etched stamp in a corner), laminated (a plastic layer visible at the edge) or a double glazed unit (two panes with a spacer bar).
Note the frame: timber sash, steel casement, aluminium slider or uPVC.
Note the location: door, side panel beside a door, bathroom, low window, upstairs. This is what decides whether safety glass is required.
Write down the date, the approximate time and the weather at the moment it broke.

3. Keep it, do not throw it out

Bag the broken glass, label the bag with the room and the date, and keep it in the shed until the claim is settled.
Keep the object that caused the break.
Keep the damaged flyscreen, security grille, beads, putty and any broken hardware.
Keep damaged curtains, blinds, floor coverings and furniture, or at minimum photograph them before disposal.
Do not have permanent glass fitted before the insurer confirms the claim. A make-safe is fine and expected; a finished repair removes the evidence.

4. Report and paperwork

Get a police event number for any break-in, attempted break-in or malicious damage. Insurers routinely decline these claims without one.
Lodge the claim and write down the claim number, the date, and the name of the person you dealt with.
Ask the insurer to confirm in writing that the emergency make-safe is authorised, and whether it sits inside the claim or outside it.
Read your excess off the policy schedule, and check whether a separate excess applies to this type of event.
Ask whether the policy includes a benefit for the extra cost of meeting current building requirements. That is the benefit that funds a safety glass upgrade.
If the house has been empty for an extended period, say so up front. Unoccupancy limits are in nearly every policy and hiding it is what gets a claim denied.

5. What to get from your glazier

An itemised written quote that separates the make-safe from the permanent replacement.
The glass specification in writing: thickness, type, and why that type is required in that location.
A plain line stating whether the existing glass met the current safety glass rules, and what the upgrade costs if it did not.
Photographs taken by the glazier on their own visit, which carry more weight than yours.
A tax invoice showing the ABN once the work is done, plus the separate receipt for the make-safe.
Written lead time for made to order glass, which is what evidences any loss of use or temporary accommodation.

6. Traps to avoid

Accepting a cash settlement before anyone has physically measured the opening.
A scope of works that prices plain float glass into a door, a side panel or a bathroom.
Signing a settlement that quietly excludes the make-safe you already paid for.
A figure with no allowance for the frame, the beads, the putty or making good the paint finish.
Clearing the glass away before the assessor has been, when the assessor has said they are coming.
Lodging a claim for a $180 to $450 repair against a $500 to $1,000 excess.

Covered event or wear and tear: the line insurers actually draw

Every home policy in Australia insures sudden and unforeseen damage. It does not insure the passage of time. Almost every declined glass claim we see in Hobart falls on the wrong side of that one sentence.

What happened	Usual position	What it turns on
Ball, elbow, dropped tool or slammed door through a pane	Covered	Whether your policy includes accidental damage, which on some budget products is an optional extra.
Break-in or attempted break-in	Covered	A police event number, and evidence of forced entry rather than an unlocked door.
Malicious damage by a stranger	Covered	Police report. Damage by a person lawfully in the home is usually excluded.
Storm, hail or a wind driven branch	Covered	Bureau records for that date, and whether the tree was already dead and known to be dangerous.
Fogged or misted double glazed unit	Not covered	Nothing. A failed edge seal is gradual deterioration. Budget $450 to $900 per unit.
Chipped, scratched or etched glass	Not covered	Most wordings require actual breakage, and a chip is not a break.
Pane fell out of a rotted sash with perished putty	Not covered	Lack of maintenance. Reglazing and reputtying is $220 to $480 per pane and is on you.
Glass broken by a tradesperson working on your house	Their insurer	Their public liability cover. Claim on them, not on your own policy, and keep your excess.
Glass broken by your tenant	Depends	Whether you hold a landlord policy with malicious damage by tenant, and what your agent documented.
Pane that was already cracked when the policy started	Not covered	Pre-existing damage is excluded everywhere. This is why entry photos matter.
Break-in while the home sat empty for months	Depends	The unoccupancy limit in your wording, commonly 60 to 90 days, and whether you told the insurer.

General information only, taken from how these claims usually run in Tasmania. Your policy wording and your product disclosure statement decide your claim, not this page.

The make-safe: what it is and who pays

A make-safe is the temporary work that stops the damage getting worse: a ply board or a clear polycarbonate sheet screwed over the opening, loose glass removed, water kept out. In Hobart that is $150 to $350 per opening in business hours, plus roughly $120 to $320 if you need it after 6pm, on a Sunday or on a public holiday. It is not a repair and it is not meant to look good, it is meant to make the house lockable and dry tonight.

Every insurer expects you to mitigate further loss, so nobody will criticise you for boarding up before the claim is decided. Two things matter. First, get the authorisation in writing, even a text or an email, because if the claim is later declined that invoice is yours. Second, understand that the make-safe almost always sits inside the same claim, so the excess applies once across the whole job rather than twice. Keep that receipt separate from the glass invoice so it can be identified in the settlement.

If the insurer sends their own make-safe contractor, let them, but photograph the opening before and after that visit. A rushed board-up that damages a heritage sash creates a second argument you do not need. Our first hour emergency guide covers what to do in the meantime, and emergency glass repair covers how we handle it.

The excess arithmetic, done honestly

This is the part of the conversation most glaziers skip, because a claim is a bigger job for us. Here it is anyway.

A typical Tasmanian home building excess in 2026 sits between $500 and $1,000, and plenty of policies carry a higher excess if you took a discount for it. Against that, a single clear pane replaced is $180 to $450 and a toughened pane is $350 to $750. On one broken window the claim is worthless: you pay the excess, you pay for the whole repair anyway, and you carry a claim on your record for the next five years.

Then there is the renewal. One claim commonly removes a no claim discount and lifts a renewal by roughly 10 to 20 percent. On a Hobart home and contents premium of $1,500 to $2,200 that is $150 to $440 a year, and it does not always drop back the following year. A $400 window can quite easily cost you $1,200 over three renewals.

Claim when the total across the make-safe, several panes, a damaged frame, a door, a shopfront, internal water damage and ruined contents is clearly above your excess: think storm damage, a tree through a window, or a break-in that took out two or three openings. Do not claim when it is one pane, a chipped mirror, a fogged unit or anything the insurer will call maintenance. Pay it, keep your record clean, and put the money you saved into the next job.

The assessor, the scope of works, and the two settlement paths

On a small glass claim there is often no assessor at all. The insurer takes your photos, applies a schedule of rates and pays. On anything above roughly $3,000, or anything with a cause that needs verifying, expect either a desktop assessment from your photographs or a site visit from a loss adjuster. The document that comes out of that visit is a scope of works, and it is the single most important piece of paper in the claim. Read it line by line. If it says float glass where the location needs Grade A safety glass, say so in writing before anyone starts, because AS 1288 does not have an insurance exemption and no reputable glazier will fit the wrong glass to suit a scope.

Insurer managed repair

The insurer sends a builder or glazier from their own panel and pays them directly. You pay the excess and nothing else. The advantage is real: the work is warranted through the insurer and any dispute about quality is their problem to fix. The trap is that panel rates are tight, so the scope tends to be minimal. Beads, paint touch-up, a rotten section of sash and the safety glass upgrade are the usual casualties. Ask for the scope in writing and add anything missing before work is authorised, not after.

Cash settlement

The insurer pays you a figure and closes the claim. The advantage is choice: your glazier, your timing, your spec, and if you can get the job done for less you keep the difference. The trap is that the number is final. If the settlement allowed $380 for a pane that is actually a $750 toughened unit in a door, that $370 is yours to find. Never accept a cash figure without an independent itemised quote in your hand, and never accept one on a heritage timber sash, because nobody prices those correctly from a photo. See heritage sash reglazing for why.

What insurers ask us to supply, and what we will not do

When a Hobart claim comes to us the insurer or the assessor generally wants six things: an itemised quote separating make-safe from permanent work; the glass specification with thickness and type; a statement of whether the location requires Grade A safety glass and what the upgrade costs; our own photographs; the lead time on made to order glass; and a tax invoice with an ABN at completion. None of that is unusual and it costs you nothing extra, so ask any glazier for it up front.

Here is the honest constraint. We are glaziers, not insurance advisers and not claims advocates. We will document the job properly, we will talk to your assessor about glass and only about glass, and we will tell you plainly when we think the repair is cheaper than your excess. We will not write a quote to a number someone asks us to hit, we will not describe wear and tear as sudden damage, and we will not fit plain float glass into a door, a side panel or a bathroom because a scope of works says so. If a claim is declined and the job goes ahead privately, the same quote stands. Nothing changes except who pays.

Get a price

Get a claim ready quote for your broken glass

Send your photos and rough sizes and we come back with an itemised quote formatted for an insurer, usually within one business day.

Glass insurance questions Tasmanian homeowners ask

Is accidental glass breakage automatically covered in Tasmania?

On most home building policies, breakage of fixed glass is a listed event, so a ball, an elbow or a slammed door is usually covered. A contents policy picks up glass in furniture such as a free standing mirror or a table top. Check the wording rather than assuming, because some budget policies treat accidental damage as an optional extra that adds roughly $60 to $150 a year to the premium.

Will insurance pay to replace a fogged double glazed unit?

Almost never. A misted unit is a failed edge seal, which is gradual deterioration rather than a sudden event, and every home policy excludes wear and tear. Budget $450 to $900 per unit to replace it yourself. The exception is where the unit was broken in a covered event and the fogging is a consequence of that same damage.

Who pays for the emergency board-up?

Either you pay the glazier and claim it back, or the insurer authorises the make-safe directly through their own network. Either way the $150 to $350 board-up normally forms part of the same claim, so the excess applies once across the whole job. Get the authorisation in writing before anyone drives out, because a declined claim leaves you holding that invoice.

Should I take the cash settlement or let the insurer manage the repair?

Take the cash when the figure covers the whole job including the make-safe, the frame, the beads and the paint, and when you have an independent quote to compare it against. Refuse it when the number was reached without anyone measuring the opening. A cash settlement closes the claim, so if the toughened pane turns out to be $750 rather than the $380 allowed, that gap is yours.

Does claiming for a broken window push my premium up?

It usually does. One claim commonly costs a no claim discount and can lift a renewal by roughly 10 to 20 percent, which on a typical Hobart home and contents premium of $1,500 to $2,200 is $150 to $440 a year for several years running. Weigh that against a $180 to $450 repair before you lodge anything.

The new glass has to be safety glass. Who pays the difference?

It depends on your wording. Many home policies include a benefit for the extra cost of complying with current building laws, usually capped at a percentage of the sum insured, and that is the benefit to ask about by name. Where it is absent the insurer pays like for like and you fund the upgrade, which is roughly $170 to $300 more to move a typical pane from plain float to toughened.

More reading: window glass insurance claims in Hobart · glass in a Tasmanian rental · signs of failed double glazing · glass repair costs · where we work

Will home insurance pay for broken glass in Tasmania?