Public Liability Insurance

[vicki]

I am ready to start advertising my refurbished house near Bucharest, Romania for holiday rentals
Can anybody help me as to where I can purchase public liability insurance and whether in fact other renters do this.
Also is there any other forum user with a property in Romania.

[Musetta]

I use Intasure and have liability coverage through it for my place abroad.

[Normandy Cow]

Ditto, we use Intasure too.

[paolo]

Now I think I have asked this before but what does that Intasure policy cover you for?

[Mountain Goat]

Non-EEC countries? We got bogged down in being told it would cover Switzerland, but their smallprint was prohibitive, and couldn't deal with simple local differences such as security features on doors and windows. It would have cost us north of £6k to comply with unnecessary requirements.

We had a list of sticking points which were impossible to implement and gave up with them. For example, fire cover is compulsory in our canton, and state provided, and we could see no point in having to duplicate cover.

Their rost damage cover had no relevance to an alpine property with extreme winter conditions.

You might ask them who deals with local claims in your own country, and whether you are offered a 24-hr helpline.

MG

[Normandy Cow]

Paolo, details on website: www.intasure.com

policy summary here: http://www.intasure.com/docs/lloyds_policy_summary.pdf

Vicki, yes they do include Romania.

[vicki]

Many thanks to those of you who replied so fast!
What a great site!
I had the first reply very soon after I posted my question and immediately looked at the Intasure site which confirmed that cover was available in Romania.
It is the public liability that I am especially interested in because I can get ( and currently still have) building and contents insurance cover purchased when I was in Bucharest last year. But public liability seems to be something I cannot get there. I have another question on this subject.
I am soon going on a short break to a self catering property in the Canaries. In his information leaflet the owner absolves himself of responsibility for any accident or mushap that may befall visitors to his property. Can he legally do this? My impression has been that public liability cover is an essential.

[Mountain Goat]

the owner absolves himself of responsibility for any accident

Vicki, many of us have a similar clause, but it may not mean much when it comes to the crunch, and local laws and regulations could override. Our legal guru should pop-up soon.

Re Intasure, I suggest you ask them for a quote, and then go through their smallprint with care. I'm sure they offer a good deal for many of us, but unfortunately not our specific case. I was really optimistic to start with, as no other company offered cover in Switzerland from the UK. As it turned out, Swiss insurance is incredibly comprehensive and highly efficient when it comes to claims - no pussy-footing and no quibbling.

MG

[Wol]

I would assume that owners can quite easily absolve themselves from blame for an accident, unless negligence on their part can be proved - but as you say, needs a proper legal opinion, and will undoubtedly vary to some extent from country to country.

[Musetta]

also...for me anyway...I HAD to have the liability ocverage in Italy or my US policy on MY home here would be cancelled (!) I have a standard homeowners and "umbrella" liability policy here (required by mortage co.) and, if you own proerty abroaad, they require proof of libility coverage for it. Intasure was one of the only (ok THE only) company though that would insure an American resident with property in Italy.

[Normandy Cow]

I used to have a very good (French) policy with Aviva, but I changed because one other thing that the Intasure policy includes is reimbursement if your house is damaged and you have to cancel your future guests.

For example if my house burnt down next week, I would be compensated for all the confirmed bookings that I would have lost.