HAVE you checked if your holiday home is insured should guests from the UK cause damage, or worse the building comes up in smoke?
That is the question being asked by Boris on his France This Way site after going through the process of renewing the insurance on the gites he has.
A casual remark about feeling safe in the knowledge that he is covered should anything nasty happen to the property, was soon brought to a halt when he was told that the insurance of guests covered the building not the cover he had just bought.
He was told that whilst many French holiday makers will have cover for damage they cause whilst in a holiday home, Brits and possibly other guests from elsewhere might not be covered.
He soon realised that his French insurance company doesn’t cover him for something as catastrophic as his holiday home burning down, and that when British holiday makers stayed in his gites there was no protection for damage.
It is possible that the travel insurance of guests may cover them should they damage the place they are staying in, but it is something that would have to be checked.
One possible solution could be to buy insurance for your holiday home through a UK supplier as the cover should extend to guests, although whether an insurance firm would be willing to sell a policy to someone considered resident in France opens up another can of worms.
Boris has decided to pay more to get improved insurance cover, saving himself a costly shock to the wallet should something terrible befall his holiday homes.
Have you had a similar experience, or do you have any advice you can pass on to other owners? Please feel free to leave a comment below.
Comments
5 responses to “Insurance for guests staying in your gite”
I’ve had my gîtes 7 years and have always had public liability insurance and the buildings and guest contents were insured in case of fire & theft (even if the fire was caused by guests). It is important to inform your insurance company that you run a gîte business and check the small print to be sure what is included before signing up to insurance.
I have now gone ‘professional’ so have taken out a more extensive policy with Prevadica through my bank, Crédit Agricole. This also covers guest damage, which my previous policy didn’t. If a guest causes damage, my insurace will re-imburse me and then chase the guest for payment through their insurance. I haven’t had to claim yet, but I can still see a potential problem with non French guests who may not have public liability or travel insurance and therefore my insurance company will not be able to recover anything.
Many thanks Susan for passing on you experience of insuring your gîtes, I hope others find it helpful.
All the best, Craig
I have recently rented a French villa that was not equipped with a land line telephone.
It was situated remotely in a rural area.
Would the owners have been able to obtain fire insurance for the property bearing in mind that reliance on mobile phones is not guaranteed, eg, battery failure and signal strength?
Bob
You raise in interesting point. Ideally the property owner should check with their insurer, as being uninsured for fire could be costly.
In most cases I expect it wouldn’t be a problem as many properties are remote and there is the argument of how quickly the emergency services would arrive anyway. If in doubt, always check with your insurer.
Philip
I have just joined this discussion as we are in the process of booking a gite with Gites de France and they have asked for proof of insurance cover for accidental damage to the property as it shouild be covered by our houshold insutrance. As we have British Insurance it isn’t (I checked with the insurance company). My question is how do we get this cover as I don’t think holiday insurance will cover it as our British insurance company said it should be the owners public liability insurance which covers the property, not ours.