Residential building insurance covers damage to your house. You should pay close attention to which dangers are insured.
Most of the residents’ assets are often in the house – so it is all the more dramatic if the home is destroyed. This is a danger that seems unlikely at first glance, but the consequences of the climate crisis can also be felt more and more in Germany.
According to experts, the storm and forest fire risk will increase sharply in the coming decades. Houses that look stable and safely at first glance can damage great damage due to unforeseen events.
Nobody can insure themselves against the great psychological burden that the loss of your own four walls brings with it. But you can protect yourself against the financial problems with the help of residential building insurance. We will show you what you should know.
With residential building insurance, it is important to distinguish between basic protection and elementary protection. The basic protection includes three components:
- The protection against Fire – So against damage caused by fire, lightning, explosion or smoke damage. The insurance also pays if a forest fire is the cause of the damage.
- The cover of Tap water damagefor example in the case of a water pipe break or if heating and air conditioning systems cause water damage.
- The protection against damage by Sturm and hail. As a rule, storm damage from wind force 8 is covered.
Some insurers offer a kind of modular system for basic protection. This means that you put your insurance cover together and, for example, if you want, you can only choose fire and storm protection.
This has a positive effect on the annual contribution you have to pay. However, there is also the risk of undercers insurance.
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But be careful: if you have completed the basic protection, you would still face a large financial hole after a flood disaster. Because only the additional component elementary danger also covers damage caused by flood, earthquake, snow pressure or volcanic eruptions.
While the latter is rather unlikely, floods caused by heavy rain events due to climate change are becoming more and more likely. Therefore, insurers only want to offer private house owners in the future only policies in which elementary protection is included.
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If you do not want the performance, you have to explicitly unsubscribe. This is in a position paper from the overall association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV). In addition, the insurers have announced that it will no longer be protected against floods, heavy rain or backlog for new buildings in areas officially listed as a flood area.
At first glance, the offers of the residential building insurers seem to be very similar, but it is worth comparing offers. An example: Not all insurers cover damage caused by negligence.
However, you should pay attention to this, because a stove plate that you accidentally did not turn off can already lead to a destructive house fire. Damage to derivation pipes outside the property – which can quickly become very expensive – are not included in every insurance package.
The insurers calculate the contribution for residential building insurance based on the size, living space, construction, age, the value and the location of the house. Anyone who lives in a new building and not in a flood area pays less than someone who lives in an old building directly on the river.
Cheap tariffs-including elementary danger protection-for a new house with around 140 square meters of living space can start at 150 to 200 euros, but there are hardly any limits to the contributions.
The location of the house is crucial for the insurance contribution – especially if you want to insure elementary dangers. The insurers use a very specific system for the classification of how endangered a house is: the Zürs zones.
These hazard classes are divided into the statistical flood frequency. There are a total of four stages. Zürs-Zone 1 is very safe, there is statistically less than every 200 years of flooding.
According to an evaluation of the GDV, more than 90 percent of homeowners live in this zone. 0.5 percent of all houses, on the other hand, are in the most endangered zone-the Zürs zone 4. There, a flood occurs statistically once in ten years.
