Tenants have a legal obligation to take out multi-risk home insurance, regardless of the type of property they are renting. However, they remain free to choose the company with which they subscribe.
At the signing of the lease, the owner must require a certificate of multi-risk home insurance. Each year on the due date, the tenant has the obligation to provide him with a new certificate, justifying the period of validity of this multi-risk. In the event of the tenant’s refusal, the lessor may refuse to sign the lease, or terminate it as of right.
Owner-occupiers remain free to choose whether or not to take out home insurance, since no legal text strictly speaking obliges them to do so. However, to deal with any eventuality of disaster, it remains more prudent to subscribe one, in order to protect its goods, to protect the dependences of your house and thus to avoid all expensive expenses, (compensation), in the event of responsible disaster with its neighbours, on the part of the occupying owner.
So in order to protect yourself from possible damage, it remains prudent to take out a multi-risk home insurance contract. it is therefore your duty to keep yourself informed of your home insurance obligations.
Summary
What damage is covered?
Certain protections are included by default by law in the insurance contract, including or not including a deductible, depending on the contract and the insurance company. However, other guarantees, offered in the form of options, can be just as interesting for the insured.
The covered risks traditionally included in the contract, due to legislation, are:
- The fire, (unless it is due to your part or to a lack of vigilance or maintenance incumbent on you).
- Water damage (except frost).
- Theft, (which the insured must justify with evidence). However, if the theft has been committed and non-compliance with certain conditions of the contract are noted, (absence of shutter, unsecured door, etc.), you will be exposed to partial compensation, or its total absence.
- Snow, hail and storm, (not to be confused with the guarantee concerning natural disasters, which is recognized only after the publication of an interministerial decree acknowledging that a natural disaster has indeed occurred).
- Glass breakage (including tiles, bay windows, mirrors, and also in some cases, railings, balcony partitions or windows).
- Civil liability, (which protects against the financial repercussions of life accidents that may be caused to third parties by yourself or by a member of your household).
- Other guarantees may be offered to you by your insurance company according to your needs or wishes, such as relocation costs, rehabilitation costs, legal protection, etc. These additional guarantees cover the name of options in the contract and may be subject, when used, to higher or lower deductibles, or simply not include any.
At what price ?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to indicate amounts without obtaining an estimate from an insurance company. Indeed, this amount may vary depending on the property owned (jewelry, paintings…), the place of residence, (flood zone, city…), as well as from an insurance company to a another, a similar or almost similar offer may be offered at different rates.
How to choose the right multi-risk home?
It is important that you assess your needs in terms of guarantees as well as possible, in order to subscribe only to the basic contract or, if necessary, to the additional options that you need.
It is therefore a question of estimating, as precisely as possible, the value of the contents of your residence (jewellery, high-tech, paintings, furniture, household appliances, etc.). Thus, your insurance premium will be high depending on the value of your property.
Read also: When and how to cancel your home insurance?
