What is home insurance for?

What is home insurance for? What is the difference between liability insurance and multi-risk insurance?

Home insurance, as its name suggests, aims to provide housing. This insurance covers the accommodation you own or the accommodation you live in in the event of damage: burglary, fire, explosion, water damage, glass breakage, etc.

Home insurance is compulsory for tenants of empty accommodation and optional for owners. But beware, if you are a homeowner, we strongly recommend that you take out home insurance. Without insurance, you will have no coverage in the event of fire or water damage…

Be careful, the guarantees vary a lot from one home insurance to another. In particular, there is a big difference between:

• Civil liability home insurance (or “rental risks” insurance), covers the damage you cause to third parties. For example, if you are the victim of water damage, the insurance will only cover the damage caused to your neighbors and to the property of your landlord (if you are a tenant). Home liability insurance does not cover your personal property. If you are a tenant, you are obliged to take out home insurance offering at least civil liability cover. This is called “rental risk” home insurance.
• Multi-risk home insurance which, as its name suggests, covers a large number of risks: water damage, fire, burglary, theft… This insurance does not only cover damage caused to others but also your personal property. All multi-risk insurance includes civil liability cover.

What is the role of the home insurance certificate?

When you take out home insurance with an insurance company, the latter gives you a certificate of insurance. As its name suggests, it is a document that “attests”, which “proves” that you have taken out home insurance. The document specifies the address of the accommodation and presents a summary of the guarantees included in the contract.

Depending on the insurers, the home insurance certificate can be sent by email, by post, or can be accessed in the online customer area.

Good to know: The insurance certificate serves as proof of address, in the same way as energy and water bills, etc.

If you are the tenant of the accommodation, you must submit a copy of the home insurance certificate when you move in. Then, your landlord is entitled to ask you for the certificate once a year, to ensure that you are still insured.

If you are the owner, you have the right to terminate the rental contract if the tenant does not present the insurance certificate proving that he has insured the accommodation. This is called termination for lack of insurance. To terminate the rental contract, you must use the services of a bailiff.

What risks are covered in the event of a claim?

The list of claims covered by home insurance depends on the insurance contract you have taken out. If you have taken out civil liability insurance, the level of cover will be very low, as we have seen: your personal property will not be covered, only the property of third parties (which includes, if you are a tenant, property belonging to your landlord) will be insured.

Multi-risk home insurance covers day-to-day disasters provided that you are not responsible for them. Concretely, if you are responsible for broken glass, the insurance will not cover the installation of new windows. But you have the possibility of opting for the guarantee against life accidents (GAV) which allows you to be insured even when you are responsible for the damage (or when the person responsible is not identified).

In the event of a claim, be aware that you have 5 days to send your insurance a declaration of the claim. If you do not respect this deadline, you cannot be compensated.

Here is a zoom on three of the main risks covered by multi-risk insurance:

• Burglaries. If you wish to be covered in the event of burglary/theft of objects, you must take out multi-risk insurance. If you are the victim of a burglary, you must notify the police (police station or gendarmerie) so that they can come and observe the burglary and lodge a complaint. The complaint must then be sent to the insurance, which will carry out expertise to assess the amount of damage and calculate the compensation.
• Water damage. The water damage guarantee is part of the mandatory guarantees if you are a tenant. If you are the victim of this claim, you must complete a report and send it to the insurance company within 5 days. Please note that some water damage is not covered by insurance. We invite you to re-read your insurance contract.
• Fires and explosions. These two risks must be covered by your insurance if you are a tenant. If your home suffers a fire or explosion, you must contact the insurance within 5 days of the date of the fire or explosion. For this type of claim, an appraisal is compulsory. To go further, discover our complete guide to home fire insurance.

In the event of a dispute with your insurance concerning your insurance contract (refusal of compensation, for example), the competent legal expert to assist you in your procedures is the insurance lawyer.

How to cancel home insurance?

A home insurance contract is concluded for one year with tacit renewal each year. This means that your home insurance is automatically renewed on the contract’s subscription anniversary date.

Since the entry into force of the Hamon Law, it is possible to terminate your insurance at any time after one year of commitment. If you wish to change insurer, you do not have to take any steps with your current insurer. Your new insurer will take care of the cancellation procedures for you.