Does home insurance cover solar panels in Perth? What you need to know

Solar panels sit on your roof for 25+ years and face hail, storms, birds, and the occasional errant cricket ball. Understanding how your home insurance interacts with your solar system is worth sorting out before something goes wrong.

Are solar panels covered by home insurance?

In most cases, yes — solar panels installed by a licensed electrician and permanently fixed to your roof are covered under the building (or home structure) section of your home insurance policy.

Under building cover, panels are treated as a permanent fixture and fitting of the property — similar to a roof, gutters, or hot water system. This means they're typically covered for:

• Storm damage (hail, wind, falling trees or branches)
• Fire damage
• Lightning strike
• Vandalism
• Impact from aircraft, vehicles, or other objects

The key word is "permanently fixed" — rooftop solar is covered. Portable or ground-mounted systems that aren't attached to the building structure may be treated differently; check with your insurer.

What's typically NOT covered

Several common causes of solar damage are excluded or handled differently:

Normal wear and tear and gradual deterioration — Insurance covers sudden, accidental damage. Progressive degradation, yellowing encapsulant, and slow frame corrosion are not insured events — they're part of the panel's normal lifespan.

Mechanical or electrical breakdown — An inverter that stops working after 12 years of operation isn't covered under standard home insurance. This is a maintenance/warranty issue, not an insured event. Equipment breakdown insurance (a separate add-on available from some insurers) can cover electrical and mechanical failure if you want protection beyond the manufacturer's warranty.

Installation faults — If panels were installed incorrectly and this causes failure, that's a workmanship issue covered (within limits) by your installer's warranty and public liability insurance — not your home policy. This is why using a CEC-accredited installer with a workmanship warranty matters.

Damage during DIY work on the roof — If you break a panel while doing DIY work and can't demonstrate the damage was accidental and sudden, the claim may be disputed. Don't use panels as a handhold when working on the roof.

The inverter specifically — Some policies treat the inverter as contents (if installed inside, such as in a garage) rather than building, while the panels are building. If your inverter is inside, make sure it's listed under contents and the sum insured is adequate.

What sum insured to use for solar

Your building sum insured should reflect the replacement cost of your home including the solar system. When you last set your building sum insured, your solar panels should have been included in that figure.

Check: does your current sum insured include the replacement cost of:

• The panels (at today's installed price, not what you paid years ago)
• The inverter
• Racking and mounting hardware
• Installation labour for replacement

A 6.6kW solar system in Perth currently costs $5,500–9,000 installed after STCs. If your building sum insured was set before you installed solar and you didn't update it, you may be underinsured.

Hail damage: Perth's main risk

Perth experiences hail periodically, typically in severe thunderstorm cells during spring and summer. Hail is one of the most common causes of solar panel claims in Australian home insurance.

Modern solar panels are tested to withstand hailstones up to 25mm diameter at impact speeds of around 23 m/s (about 80 km/h). This is the IEC standard test (IEC 61215). Most reputable panels pass this test — but extreme hail events with large stones exceed the test parameters.

What to do after a hail event:

1. Visually inspect panels from the ground (don't climb up immediately)
2. Check your inverter monitoring app for any generation drop on the following sunny day
3. If you can see cracking or the system underperforms, contact your insurer and your installer
4. Photograph the damage before any work is done — insurers require evidence

Making a claim: what to expect

If your panels are damaged:

1. Contact your insurer first — lodge the claim before arranging any repairs. Most insurers require an assessor to inspect before authorising repair work (except for emergency temporary measures)
2. Document everything — photos of the damaged panels, the date and nature of the event, your inverter records showing the performance drop
3. Get a repair/replacement quote from a CEC-accredited installer — the insurer will compare this against their own assessment
4. Excess applies — your standard building excess applies to solar claims

Panel replacement vs whole-system replacement: If only a few panels are damaged, insurers typically cover those panel replacements. If your panels are older and the damaged models are discontinued, you may need to replace more panels to maintain string matching — discuss this with your assessor.

Equipment breakdown insurance

Standard home insurance covers sudden accidental damage. It doesn't cover your inverter dying of natural causes after 12 years.

Equipment breakdown cover (sometimes called "electrical and mechanical breakdown") is an add-on available from some insurers that covers failure of electrical and mechanical equipment due to a breakdown event — including inverters and battery inverters.

This can be worth considering if:

• Your inverter warranty has expired or is expiring
• You have an older system and don't want to self-insure the inverter replacement cost
• You have a battery inverter (which is more expensive to replace than a standard string inverter)

Not all insurers offer this as an add-on — ask specifically.

Before you install solar: checklist

1. Call your insurer before installation to confirm panels are covered under your existing policy and whether you need to update your sum insured
2. Update your sum insured to include the replacement cost of the solar system
3. Keep your installation documentation — Certificate of Electrical Compliance, warranty documents, and the installer's CEC accreditation number. These may be needed for a claim
4. Ask your installer for the panel hail rating — confirm the panels meet IEC 61215 (25mm hail test) or better

If you don't own the roof

Renters: You typically cannot insure solar you don't own. If a landlord has installed solar, it's their responsibility to insure it under their landlord building policy.

Strata/apartments: Body corporate insurance usually covers the common property roof and any solar on shared rooftops. Solar installed on a lot owner's portion of the roof (rare) would be the lot owner's responsibility — check with your body corporate manager and strata insurer.

This is general information about how home insurance typically treats solar panels — not advice about any specific policy. Always confirm coverage details directly with your insurer before and after solar installation. Policy terms vary significantly between providers.