Initio has released its 2025 claims trends report and a companion “lighter side” analysis, setting out patterns in motor, home, contents, and landlord claims in New Zealand, along with service and support metrics from the year. The insurer’s material also points to emerging loss scenarios involving children, trampolines, drones, kontikis, and consumer electronics.
Initio reported that a substantial share of claims in 2025 were settled relatively soon after lodgement, with nearly half finalised within 30 days. “In 2025, our claims team made sure ‘waiting around’ was rarely part of the experience. Many claims were sorted out within just a day of being lodged – yes, some were literally resolved overnight. A large number of others were wrapped up within the first week,” the company said in its claims trend report.
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The insurer said this was based on rapid assessment and regular communication, applied across both lower-value and higher-value claims, including house fires and significant water damage events. Initio also noted that it processed “hundreds of claims even during the busiest periods (think wild weather weeks and the holiday rush) without breaking stride.” Weather remained an important factor in short-term claim spikes. The report identified April 29, 2025, as the busiest claims day of the year, coinciding with heavy rain and strong winds in parts of the country and a related increase in weather-related lodgements.
The report highlighted several notable claim categories in 2025. Vehicle glass claims, including windscreen damage, made up about 12% of all claims by number. Water damage accounted for around 10% of claims, but about 27% of total payouts, indicating higher average cost per claim. Examples included hidden leaks and burst pipes. Accidental fire represented about 1% of claims but contributed roughly 12% of total claim costs. Initio presented this as an illustration of the financial concentration in less frequent but higher-severity events. Across the book, the most common claim scenarios continued to be accidental damage in and around the home, motor incidents, and weather-related events such as storm impacts on buildings and other property.
Initio also reported on its customer support activity for 2025. The insurer said it handled more than 22,000 customer enquiries during the year, with most resolved within about an hour. “A huge portion (over 90%) were solved in a single interaction, meaning one call or message was all it took to sort things out. No endless email chains, no multiple phone transfers – just one conversation and you’re sorted. ‘No follow-ups needed’ became a bit of an unofficial motto for us this year, and we’re proud of that,” the report said.
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Most customers contacted Initio through online channels, such as email, live chat, and the Initio dashboard, while phone remained available as an alternative channel. According to the company, customers received “the same friendly, professional care” regardless of channel. The insurer’s chatbot, “Chad,” continued to support self-service. In 2025, Chad handled nearly 3,000 conversations and sent more than 7,000 messages. Initio reported a 95% answer rate and said: “The vast majority of customers rated their experience with Chad highly.”
In a separate December 2025 “lighter side” report, Initio analysed household and contents claims that referenced children. The insurer said that about 1% of all claims mentioned a child, while for contents claims the proportion was roughly 7%. In some locations, around three in every 100 claims included children in the description. Based on Initio’s portfolio, child-related damage was most frequently reported in Cambridge, Nelson, Gisborne, Palmerston North, and Queenstown.
The more common damaged items in these claims were:
More than 40% of child-related claims were recorded as accidental damage, followed by water damage from spills and overflows, and glass breakage where balls, scooters, toys, or bikes hit windows and doors. One claim was highlighted as a specific example: “a child driving a mobility scooter into a glass door.” Initio commented that the incident “reads like a scene from a comedy, but it is a real claim with real broken glass and a real clean up.”
The weather-related data also drew attention to unsecured outdoor equipment. Trampolines remained a small share of total claims but accounted for approximately 3% of wind and storm claims. Reported cases included trampolines that blew away and were not recovered, a trampoline lifted onto a roof by a small tornado, and trampolines damaging fences while being moved by high winds. Initio presented these examples as an indication that storm risk can involve a range of loose outdoor items, not only trees and roofing materials.
The report also noted a continuing presence of drones and motorised kontikis in claims, particularly those linked to recreational fishing. While these devices remain a small portion of overall losses, they now appear regularly compared with a decade ago, when they were rarely seen in claims. Examples from 2025 included drones hit by waves and lost at sea, drones colliding with power lines or crashing on land, and kontikis colliding with rocks, filling with water, or sinking before returning to shore. “Put simply, some of the gadgets people use to fish seem very keen to join the fish,” Initio said.
Across its 2025 portfolio, Initio reported recurring claims involving small digital devices. About one in every 80 claims involved a mobile phone, with laptops appearing in roughly one in every couple of hundred claims and tablets at a lower but identifiable rate. The data also included a small number of claims involving robot lawnmowers and robot vacuum cleaners. The insurer said these patterns illustrate the amount of insured value now concentrated in small, fragile items and noted that this has implications not only for owner-occupiers but also for landlords, as tenants bring such devices into rental properties.
For landlord and rental risks, Initio stated that many claims where tenants or rentals were clearly referenced involved routine incidents rather than major events:
The insurer added that these observations are used in reviewing policy design and guidance. “That feeds back into how we think about house insurance and landlord insurance. It helps us make sure common accidents are covered clearly, that our wording matches real life, and that we can give better tips on how to avoid some of these mishaps in the first place. Behind every percentage and every claim code, there is usually a very human, very Kiwi story,” the report said.
