With building insurance, you can protect yourself from the huge financial burden that occurs when a house burns down or is destroyed by a storm. t-online explains when you should take out this insurance.
The most important things at a glance
The flood disaster in summer 2021 has proven that the danger of losing your home due to a storm is real. And a house fire or a burst pipe can also mean that your own four walls become uninhabitable or require expensive repairs.
You can protect yourself against this financial burden with building insurance. But depending on the size and location of the house, the annual premiums can be expensive. t-online explains whether you are legally obliged to take out building insurance – and why it’s worth it.
Basically there are no legal obligationto take out building insurance. Even fire insurance, which was mandatory for homeowners until 1994, is no longer compulsory.
But there is a kind indirect obligation to take out building insuranceIf you buy or build a house and need financing, the bank may contractually require you to take out building insurance.
Because financing is often provided by a Mortgage on the property. This means that the property can be transferred to the bank if its owner can no longer service the loan. In addition, without building insurance, the risk that the borrower will become insolvent increases – for example because repairs to the house cost five figures.
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But while many homeowners have taken out homeowners insurance, the Basic hazards such as fire, water damage and storms less than half of the buildings in Germany are protected against Natural hazards such as flooding or inundation insured. The reason: Many people underestimate the risk that their house could also be affected by flooding. You can read more about this in our separate guide to building insurance.
In addition, insurers usually offer protection against these so-called Elementary hazards as an additional module This leads consumers to avoid this basic building block in order to save money. But that could soon change.
In a position paper, the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) has determined that in future insurers will only offer private homeowners policies that include natural hazard protection.
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Homeowners insurance can be taken out not only by homeowners, but also Owner of a condominium. However, it is a little more complicated.
As the owner of an apartment, you must come to an agreement with the members of your homeowners association (WEG). This is the association of all apartment owners in a property. You and the WEG then decide together whether to take out insurance for the entire building. If so, the costs of the insurance are distributed among all WEG members via the maintenance fee.
Tenants who think that building insurance does not affect them are wrong. Landlords can cover the costs of Pass on building insurance to tenantsHowever, the landlord must at least indirectly refer to the insurance costs in the rental agreement and make them transparent in the annual operating costs statement. You can read what else you need to consider as a landlord here.
- Operating costs statement: When does it have to be presented?
Yes, because if you do not take out a building insurance policy with a natural hazards component, in the worst case scenario you will have not entitled to state aidIn 2017, it was decided that flood victims should only receive state aid if they had previously tried unsuccessfully to obtain insurance or if they were offered insurance under economically unreasonable conditions.
Especially homeowners who live in the ZÜRS Zone 4 – the area where, statistically, a flood occurs every ten years – do not receive an offer from every insurer. And if they do, it is often not affordable.
