Will home insurance pay to replace a storm-damaged antenna in WA?
Usually not, and the reason is arithmetic rather than principle. A storm-damaged antenna in Bunbury costs $340 to $750 to replace, while a typical WA home building excess in 2026 is $500 to $1,000. Storm and wind are standard insured events, so the event itself is covered, but many policies exclude or sub-limit antennas, aerials, masts and dishes, and every policy excludes corrosion and wear. Claim when the antenna took tiles, gutter or a ceiling with it. Otherwise, pay for it and keep your claims record clean.
Covered event, or wear and tear? This is the whole argument
Almost every declined antenna claim in the South West turns on one question: did a storm break something that was otherwise sound, or did the weather simply finish off something that had already corroded away?
A home building policy covers sudden, accidental physical damage caused by a defined event. Storm, wind and hail are on that list, and the winter fronts that come through Bunbury between May and September regularly bring the gusts that snap a mast or tear a bracket out of a batten. That is a covered event.
What no Australian home policy covers is rust, corrosion, gradual deterioration, wear and tear, or damage caused by a lack of maintenance. That matters enormously here, because salt is what kills antennas within a couple of kilometres of the Indian Ocean, Koombana Bay and the Leschenault Estuary. A 12 year old aluminium head in Dalyellup or the estuary side of Australind is usually white with salt powder at every fixing, and the U-bolts are often half gone. When the wind finally puts it over the gutter, the insurer will argue that corrosion did the work and the wind just delivered the verdict.
You will not win that argument by insisting. You win it, when it is genuinely winnable, with dated photographs, an installer statement about the mode of failure, and evidence that the antenna was maintained. That is why the checklist below matters more than the phone call.
Three things that decide it
- The condition of the metal. Clean, bright, intact fixings with a snapped mast reads as storm damage. Powdery, pitted, rust-stained fixings reads as corrosion, whatever the weather did that night.
- The weather record. Bureau of Meteorology observations for the Bunbury area on the day are free and objective. A gust record supports you. A calm day undermines you completely.
- Consequential damage. An antenna alone is small money. An antenna that broke six tiles, dented the gutter and let water into a ceiling is a genuine building claim, and the antenna simply rides along inside it.
Evidence checklist: what to capture before anything is repaired or thrown out
In the order a claim needs it. Print it, tick it off, and do not let anyone clear the roof until the first group is done. Your ticks are saved in this browser, so you can come back to it.
1. Photograph it before anything moves
2. Record the facts while they are fresh
3. Keep it, do not throw it out
4. Paperwork the insurer will ask for
5. Red flags that sink an antenna claim
The excess maths, done honestly
This is the table that stops most Bunbury antenna claims before they start. Compare your excess against the real cost of the work.
| The job | Realistic 2026 Bunbury cost | Against a $500 excess | Against a $1,000 excess |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repair, retune, reseal | $130 to $280 | Nothing to claim | Nothing to claim |
| Make-safe after a storm | $180 to $320 | Only inside a bigger claim | Only inside a bigger claim |
| Marine-grade antenna replacement | $340 to $580 | Nets $0 to $80. Not worth it | Nothing to claim |
| Antenna, mast, bracket and lead-in, double storey | $450 to $750 | Nets $0 to $250. Marginal | Nothing to claim |
| Antenna plus broken tiles and gutter | $1,200 to $3,500 | Worth claiming | Worth claiming |
| Antenna plus ceiling and insulation water damage | $3,000 to $9,000 | Claim it | Claim it |
Excess figures are typical 2026 WA home building excesses. Your policy schedule states yours, and storm or named-event excesses are sometimes higher than the standard one. Our own price list is on the pricing page.
There is a second cost people forget. A claim sits on your insurance history for years and is visible to every insurer you approach. A $150 net recovery on a marginal antenna claim can quietly cost more than that in premium over the following renewals. If the number in the middle column is small, pay the tradesperson and move on. That advice loses us nothing, because either way the antenna gets replaced.
Make-safe: what it is and who pays
A make-safe is not the repair. It is the minimum work that stops the loss getting bigger: taking down or securing a swinging antenna and mast, capping the coax so water stops running into the roof cavity, sealing the penetration, and clearing debris off the roof and out of the gutter. In Bunbury that is a $180 to $320 visit.
Insurers expect you to mitigate the damage promptly, and a make-safe is normally payable under the claim. Two practical points. First, ring the insurer before you book anyone, because many have a 24 hour make-safe line and their own contractor, and using yours instead can complicate reimbursement. Second, ask whether the excess is deducted from the make-safe or only from the final settlement, because that answer changes whether a small claim is worth lodging at all.
Keep the make-safe genuinely minimal. If your tradesperson replaces the whole antenna during the make-safe visit, the insurer has lost the chance to inspect the failed part, and the assessor can reasonably refuse to accept your account of the cause. Our make-safe visits photograph everything, bag the failed hardware and leave the replacement for a separate booking once you have a decision. The emergency page sets out what to do in the first hour, before any of this starts.
The assessor, the scope of works, and the two ways it gets paid
On a claim big enough to matter, the insurer appoints an assessor. They attend, inspect, take their own photographs and write a scope of works: the list of what will be repaired or replaced and to what standard. Everything that is not in the scope does not get paid, so read it. If your quote includes a marine-grade antenna and stainless fixings because the house is 400 metres from the surf, and the scope says standard antenna, that is the moment to raise it, not after the work is done.
Under the General Insurance Code of Practice the insurer acknowledges a claim within 10 business days and normally decides within 4 months, and where an expert is appointed their report is due within 12 weeks. If a decision goes against you and the internal complaint gets nowhere, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority handles disputes at no cost to consumers.
Cash settlement
The insurer pays you a figure and you organise the work. It is quick and you choose your own installer. The traps: the figure is calculated at the insurer scheduled rate, which is commonly 10 to 20 per cent below a retail quote in a regional market like the South West, you carry any price movement between settlement and installation, and you lose the workmanship warranty the insurer would otherwise stand behind. Accept a cash settlement only after you hold a written quote you are happy with.
Insurer-managed repair
The insurer sends their panel contractor and warrants the work, usually for a stated period. The traps: you do not choose who climbs on your roof, panel contractors in regional WA can be booked weeks out, and the specification will be like for like, which on a coastal Bunbury house may mean the same cheap aluminium head that corroded in the first place. If you want the upgrade, offer to pay the difference and get that agreed in writing before the job is booked.
Straight recommendation
For a small, self-contained job like an antenna, take the cash settlement if the figure genuinely covers a marine-grade replacement fitted with stainless hardware. For anything that involves the roof structure, the ceiling or water damage, take the insurer-managed repair and keep the warranty.
Landlords, strata and the honest exceptions
- Landlord policies cover the building the same way, and the antenna sits in the same corrosion argument. Loss of rent will not apply to a television antenna, because a dead antenna does not make a property uninhabitable. Who pays for the repair between owner and tenant is a separate question, covered on the rental antenna page.
- Units and townhouses under strata in WA sit under the Strata Titles Act. A shared or master antenna on common property is generally the strata company’s to insure and maintain, not yours, and lodging it on your contents policy wastes your time. Ask the strata manager first.
- Rented roof space and shared aerials in older Bunbury blocks are frequently nobody’s clearly documented responsibility. Get the ownership settled in writing before anyone quotes.
- We do not do insurance work on commission. We write the quote and the failure statement as we find it. If the antenna died of salt rather than wind, that is what the statement says, because a statement that bends is worth nothing to you the moment an assessor looks at the photographs.
One more honest constraint: if your antenna is more than 10 years old and lives within about 2 km of the water, an insurer is very likely to call it wear and tear no matter how hard the wind blew. Your money is better spent on a planned replacement at $340 to $580 than on a claim that will take six weeks to be declined. The coastal maintenance schedule explains how to get a decade out of the next one, and the installation cost guide covers what a proper replacement includes.
Frequently asked questions
Does home insurance cover a storm-damaged TV antenna in WA?
Why would an insurer refuse an antenna claim?
What is a make-safe and who pays for it?
Should I take a cash settlement or let the insurer manage the repair?
When should I not claim at all?
How long does an insurer have to decide an antenna claim?
Get the itemised quote and failure statement your insurer will ask for
Send us the photos and the date of the storm and we will come back within one business day with an itemised written quote and a plain statement of what actually failed.
Storm damage in Bunbury, Australind or Dalyellup?
Documented make-safe from $180. Itemised replacement quotes written the way assessors want them.