Public Liability Insurance

[Rosepop]

I've seen other very long winded posts on this, but I just need some concise practical advice!

Presumably as a gite owner, one would need public liability insurance to cover against any damage to people or their belongings which was incurred whilst on your property. So it would cover you from claims arising if say a guest fell down the stairs, a workman fell off his ladder, or a passer by was hit by a loose tile. (hopefully not all at the same time).

Can anyone please advise me of a contact who could sell me such a policy, and what the French terminology is for such a policy?

[la vache!]

It is called responsabilité civil and most insurance companies will offer this (I'm with AXA for example, and before that Groupama) - you just need to go round a few and get some quotes and check the amount of cover offered under their scheme.

[Sarah]

We have public liability insurance included with our household insurance policy, we use MPF Assurances.

According to our broker, there are two levels of cover, if your gite/chambre d'hote is 3 bedrooms or less then this is classed as a 'small' property and the public liability element is just tacked on to the household policy with a minimal extra cost.

If your rental property is 4 bedrooms or larger which ours is, then you need to have a 'professional' policy which is more expensive but covers everything ie buildings, contents and damage to your guests.

Sarah

[paolo]

Does your household insurance cover you if your guests accidentally set the house on fire? That is, does your insurance company pay out without wanting to be paid by the guest's insurance company first?

[Sarah]

Paulo

It is a good point about damage by guests and I will ask our Insurance broker about this

Sorry, my response wasn't very clear. The policy we have is not actually the household policy (we had this last year but decided to up the level of cover as I was concerned about the public liability element), it is a professional policy called 'Assurance Multirisque Professionelle' which is used also for commercial premises, shops etc, so I am pretty certain that we would be covered by our own insurance should a guest cause damage. We now insure the gite separately but just pay one big cheque for all our insurances in one go.

Our broker recommended the household policy with the public liability element for smaller properties because she felt that it provided sufficient cover and is substantially cheaper than the professional policy. I will contact her and clarify.

Sarah.

[Normandy Cow]

I am pretty certain that we would be covered by our own insurance should a guest cause damage.

Don't bet on it! Most policies don't, because French people have public liability insurance as part of their own house insurance, so it is their insurance which would cover any damage, not yours.

My policy doesn't cover my property for damage done by guests, so I have to ensure that they have taken out adequate travel insurance before they get there. I'm not sure how many people who let out their houses in France are actually aware of this...

If you find that your insurance DOES cover you, then could you please PM me the details of the company, as I will be interested in transferring to them at next renewal time. Thanks!

[Sarah]

Catherine

I have checked with our Insurance broker and the policy we now have does cover us for damage caused by guests. The original policy did not have cover for this. This is why our new policy costs twice as much as the old one.

I will send you a PM with details.

Sarah.

[Normandy Cow]

Thanks for the details Sarah - I will certainly contact them when my Aviva policy comes up for renewal next spring, as I think this is exactly the sort of policy I am looking for.

[la vache!]

Sarah,
could you pm me the details too? I don't know if I will be able to afford it, but it is a constant underlying concern I have with UK guests that even if they are insured, how do you go about claiming from them once they are back in the UK.

[enid]

My French insurance covers me for damage I may do chez vous.

[elena]

Hi All,
Have been reading the forum for a long time and decided to join in with a question if anybody can help. We are about to move to the Dordogne where we bought a gite complex. Can anybody tell us who the best insurer is for this type of business? Thanks.

Elena

[goo-rat]

Both Generali and Axa have very good (very much the same) professional poilcies, we were with Axa last year but have changed to Generali as the cover is slightly better and costs slightly less.

The policy is, in effect, a small hotel policy. The advantage is that all the sort cover you need to have when you have guests about (LIABILITY COVER!!!) is there. + bonus stuff like:
Theft of clients belongings in their rooms.
Damage by clients.
Clients cars in your car park.

[Stu]

We have a 'Multirisque Professionnelle' with MAAF. They're very reasonably priced, and our agent made a site vist at our insistence as we didn't want to rely on his interpretation of what we needed and what we wanted cover for. He actually thanked us for allowing him to visit as it was most 'enlightening' for him. I believe that many people running this kind of operation are 'less than covered'. That's not to cast aspersions on anyone here, just to say that it's sometimes 'overlooked'.

On a seperate note, Syb had an accident last week in the car whereby she incurred a small fine. The gendarme who visited us to give us the fine wanted to see both our Attestation d'Assurance and also our Siren Number. So, once they know where you are, they're VERY interested!

Take care all.

[SmileyT]

This is probably of no use to those living in France but may be of interest to those in the UK with homes abroad. insuranceforhomesabroad.co.uk
I use a company called Insurance for Homes Abroad.
I got competitive quotes and while these were not the cheapest, they were the ones that fitted my needs best.

I get the following:
Public Liability,
Swimming Pool cover,
damage by the tenants.
Accidents to domestic staff,
Emergency travel cover,
Contents and building cover.
Everything in English! ( A big plus to a poor French speaker like me)
Underwritten by LLoyds

For my 4 bed house it was £188.00 for the year. Pretty good I thought.