What You Haven’t Known about Home Insurance
August 19th, 2014
A lot of people can’t see clearly when it comes to property-related insurances. Most misunderstandings occur related to the jurisdiction of apartment block insurance and home owner insurance. Before talking about the issue in details it must be stated that there are a lot of different constructions; the most frequent ones based on our personal experience will be reviewed below.
1. Apartment Block Insurance
Many think that any damage occurring within the building falls within the jurisdiction of the apartment block insurance. Actually there are as many kinds of insurances as there are apartment blocks. The apartment block insurance applies to the damage occurring within our property only in certain cases.
Let’s begin with a classic example, the pipe breakage. If the water main breaks and floods our apartment that without a doubt falls under the responsibility of the apartment block, thus it falls under the jurisdiction of the insurance. But if a simple pipe breaks in our apartment, and floods the apartment of those living downstairs from us, as painful as it is, we have to cover our own and the neighbor’s damages – unless the apartment owners’ damages caused by other owners fall within the jurisdiction of the insurance.
Of course there are property insurances that cover any damages within the building, but we have to make sure in this case as well if the insurance has any limitations or loopholes. The apartment block may have another insurance package that it used to have, or it may have no insurance at all temporarily, e. g. because of negligent apartment block management.
2. Home Owner Insurance
To avoid the problem above it’s important that the apartment owners have an own home insurance. A lot of insurance packages are available on the market, and they provide different levels of protection. In most cases they cover the damages occurring within the apartments. They can cover damages caused by a storm, a fire, an earthquake etc., damage of the windows or damages caused by water. It can include liability insurance, can cover theft or defacement damages and accommodation fees (if the apartment becomes uninhabitable).
It’s important to know that the owner has to have an own home insurance if the home loan has not been paid off yet.
3. Tenant Insurance
After all these a question may occur: why does the tenant need an own insurance? Unfortunately in case of a theft mostly easily removable values (notebooks, cell phones etc.) get stolen, which usually are the property of the tenant. In most cases home owner insurances don’t cover such damages, thus despite the apartment is insured, the tenants can’t hope for having their damages covered by the insurance company of the owner.
Source:www.towerbudapest.com
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