Does holiday home in France need specific insurance?
Second homes can often be added to existing policies
Contracts can cover issues specific to second homes
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Reader Question: Do we need any specific kind of insurance for our holiday home in the south of France? We travel there from the UK each summer for about two months.
Under French law, there is no obligation to insure second homes, unlike main homes.
The exception is if the second home is in copropriétaire (usually in a block of flats), which requires at least responsabilité civile insurance, roughly equivalent to third-party cover.
Most people do insure second homes, and there are niches in the market especially for them.
Sometimes it is cheaper to add second home insurance to an existing household contract, which usually gives the same cover to the second home as the main one.
Specific second home insurance is usually divided into three sections: damage cover, theft and vandalism, and responsabilité civile.
The damage element covers things such as fires, storm damage, natural disasters, water damage and broken windows.
It overlaps with theft and vandalism, but parts of the latter, like the clause d’inhabitation, are specific for second homes.
This may state that thefts are not covered if the house is left unoccupied for periods, usually varying between 30 and 90 days. It might be a good idea to have this period extended – if the main insurance companies baulk, use a broker to find a specialist.
Note that some insurance firms do not count weekend visits as ‘occupation’.
Read more: Second home in France: how to save on running costs
Extra cover
Insurance companies sometimes offer longer theft cover if alarms, cameras, strong doors or burglar bars are installed.
Responsabilité civile for second homes covers cases, for example, where a fire in your home spreads next door and causes damage there. Your main household insurance may cover you for this in France already.
Other cover sometimes included in second home contracts includes for damage caused by neighbours while you were absent, cover for the garden, including things like removing fallen trees, or cover for damage caused by short circuits or other electricity-related events, aggravated by the house being empty.
