When choosing a second home, having the right information implies having better and more varied elements of judgement about the damages that the policy cover before signing it.
-Regarding the policy coverage: The document should clearly specify if the coverages are related only to the building or also to the contents of hour home. Usually together with the property an amount for trousseau (furniture and electro domestics) of around 30.000€ according to the national statistics is also included.However, there are different valuations about the comfort level of the house, since meteorological factors to human factors, taking into consideration also technical contingencies. The coverage umbrella, without being exact, helps the owners to minimize the impact of the risk.
– Regarding the amount of the policy: It depends to a large extent of the characteristics of the property. In a way, a 19th century home will be more susceptible to deterioration and diverse situations than a new construction building.
– Regarding the amounts that the owners are compensated in the case of accident: Statistics say that the average is around 100€ for minor damages. However, some insurance companies give priority to some certain concepts over others, that is why we can appreciate evident changes depending on this and the aforementioned factors. Some insurance companies prefer sending a technic to repair the damages, and other prefer to pay the receipt directly to the technic that we choose from a list of authorised companies or services.
– Responsibilities of the insurance companies: Beforehand, insurance companies must take care of all kind of events occurring in the home and covered by the policy. Both, if the owner is responsible for the flaw, in which case, the insurance company will pay the amount of the reparation as well as the damages to third parties, and also if it is a non-ensured tenant that causes the damage in our house, which will result in a amendment of the company which will have an effect in the receipt of the offender.
Basic precautions: Needless to say, that before signing a contract it is necessary to real in detail the legal writing of the policy, with its clauses, and its fine prints, in which aspects unfavourable to the owner may be included. Fortunately, in Spain there aremany insurance companies and it is always possible to compare offers so to determine for example, in which way will the objects replaced in the event of robbery; in that concrete case, a lot of insurance companies will opt for their replacement for articles of similar characteristics and values, while other companies will refund the market price of the articles, with a prior valuation. We can find many webs for compare insurance companies online, and we advise their use, of course we will have to take care when choosing the website because some of them are owned by the own insurance company and they camouflage the results.
In any case, it is very important:
-Sign in a contract the coverages, price, dates… etc.
-In the contract, there will appear the exact beforehand payment notification of the fees or monthly payments.
-Resolve in a written form the due date of policy to inform the company of possible accidents.
-To know what documentation we will be asked in case of accident.
-When we decide to cancel the policy, we should not forget to do it in written form.
The investment in a house also implies a commitment to security, because of that the determination of a home insurance can be implemented with additional guarantees.
If we analyse the insurance companies’ market situation in Europe, Spain shares the privilege of the non-obligatory nature together with the UK. On the contrary, French inhabitants who buy a house are forced to the policy and as an extreme case in Swiss it is also mandatory for those people who choose to rent.
In Spain, provinces such as Cádiz, Sevilla and Cáceres have a higher amount of accidents and are therefore they are considered “black spots” in the insurance companies’ map, rising as consequence the price of the policies. The adverse effects happen in Huesca, Soria and Lleida, whose population and design characteristics place them at the last place in the accidents lists and therefore have the cheapest fees.
By Massimo Filippa
Information given is offered for information purposes, excluding the company and the author from all responsibility, not constitute an official publication nor will it be binding. We always recommend check with your lawyer or adviser.
Massimo Filippa
