Consumer protection
Association wants compulsory insurance for all homeowners
April 9, 2026 – 7:40 a.mReading time: 3 minutes
The federal government would like to make elementary protection insurance compulsory. Details are still unclear. The environmental organization Urgewald has clear ideas and also wants to make the industry more responsible.
In the debate about the introduction of compulsory insurance against floods and other natural hazards, the environmental organization Urgewald is in favor of following the French model. “The system there shows what cost-effective, solidarity-based and at the same time stable protection against increasing climate damage should look like,” says Urgewald campaigner Anna Lena Samborski, referring to the high protection rate in the neighboring country to the west.
98 percent of buildings in France are insured against floods or heavy rain. For comparison: In Germany, 96 percent of homeowners have building insurance. However, this only insures damage caused by lightning, hail, fire and tap water. Only around 57 percent of homeowners have elementary insurance that protects against flooding.
In the past, the state has regularly had to step in and compensate affected homeowners: after the devastating Ahrtal flood disaster in 2021, the federal and state governments provided a total of 30 billion in emergency aid. In order to avoid this “Samaritan dilemma” in the future, the federal government wants to introduce compulsory insurance against natural hazards. However, the exact design is still unclear.
The French “regime catastrophe naturelle”, or “CatNat” system for short, which has existed since 1982, shows “what a model of solidarity could also look like in Germany,” writes Urgewald in a press release. In France, elementary insurance is a mandatory part of all household contents, residential building and motor vehicle insurance. The amount of the insurance premium is set by the state: the annual average premium is around 42 euros for elementary protection. In Germany, however, the amount of the premium is based on the individual risk, i.e. the location of the house. People in risk areas in particular pay very high premiums for their insurance coverage, if they get it at all.
The system in France is insured by the public reinsurer Caisse Centrale de Réassurance (CCR). A specially set up fund, into which parts of the insurance premiums flow, also finances preventive measures, such as the construction of dikes.
The GDV presented its own system called “Elementar Re” last December. The core of the proposal: 400,000 houses that are particularly at risk from flooding should be pooled into a separate risk pool. The premiums should remain limited in order to ensure insurance coverage in risk areas. Each individual insured person pays the additional costs through a surcharge on their own contribution.
