Claiming a broken window on insurance
What to photograph, when a claim is worth making, and what your insurer will ask for.
A lot of broken glass ends up as an insurance claim — a storm, a break-in, a ball through a sliding door. The process is simple once you know what the insurer wants, and most of it happens in the first ten minutes.
Is broken glass usually covered?
Glass that is part of the building — windows, sliding doors, fixed panels, shower screens — generally falls under home building insurance. Some policies include accidental glass breakage as standard; others list it as an optional extra. Glass in furniture, such as a table top or a freestanding mirror, is more often a contents matter.
Deliberate damage from a break-in is usually treated differently from accidental damage, and storm damage differently again. Which event caused the break matters, so note it when you call.
What to do before anything is cleaned up
- Make it safe first. Keep people and pets away, and tape any cracked pane that is still in the frame. Our guide on what to do when a window breaks covers this step by step.
- Photograph everything. A wide shot of the room, a close-up of the break, the frame, and anything that caused it — the ball, the branch, the forced lock.
- Report a break-in to police and keep the event number. Insurers normally ask for it on theft or malicious damage claims.
- Keep the pieces until the claim is lodged, unless they are a hazard.
Claim it, or just pay?
Compare the likely cost of the glass against your excess. A single small pane in a ground-floor window often costs less than a typical excess, and a claim can affect future premiums. A large toughened sliding door panel, a shopfront, or several panes after a storm is a different calculation. If you are not sure, get the quote first — it costs nothing — and decide once you know the number.
What your insurer will want from the glazier
- An itemised written quote: glass type, thickness and size for each pane, labour, and any make-safe or board-up.
- Photos of the damage taken by the glazier on site.
- Confirmation that the replacement glass meets AS 1288 for its location — relevant when an old annealed pane has to be upgraded to safety glass.
We provide the itemised quote and photos for insurance jobs, and invoice once the insurer has approved the work.
Renting, or in a strata building?
In a rental, glass that is part of the building is usually the owner’s responsibility to insure, but if a tenant or their guest caused the damage, the tenant can be liable. Tell your property manager straight away either way. In a strata building, glass on common property is normally covered by the strata policy, while glass within a lot depends on the scheme’s by-laws — your strata manager will know.
Board-up while you wait for approval
Insurers generally expect you to prevent further damage, and the cost of a make-safe is commonly included in a claim. If the opening cannot be left overnight, we board it up and then fit the new glass once the claim is approved. See same-day glass repair and sliding door glass replacement.