Personal injury · neighbour law · administrative law
Klaverblad legal expenses insurance
Most personal files are about three things: injury after an accident, an argument about something you bought, and trouble with the neighbours or the local authority. That is what you judge a policy on.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Klaverblad rechtsbijstandverzekering.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert.nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
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- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your situation
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
With personal injury legal expenses insurance is often unnecessary and indispensable at the same time. Unnecessary, because under Article 6:96(2) of the Dutch Civil Code the liable party has to reimburse your reasonable costs of legal assistance once liability is established. Indispensable, because that liability is precisely what is in dispute: as long as the other party denies it, nobody is paying for your representative. The recovery module covers exactly that period, which is why it usually has no waiting period.
We set more than thirty insurers objectively side by side. Klaverblad is one of the insurers we can place business with; what suits you follows from your situation and not from the name on the policy. You can read more about this insurer's role at Klaverblad, and the product explanation is on the hub legal expenses insurance.
Two areas of law are consistently underrated. The first is neighbour law: overhanging branches, a fence in the wrong place, a tree too close to the boundary as governed by Article 5:42 of the Dutch Civil Code , or noise nuisance. These are long-running cases with a small financial interest but a high legal price. The second is administrative law: a neighbour's environmental permit, an enforcement decision, a property valuation decision or a benefits decision. Neither is included in every basic cover.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare personal legal expenses insurance (rechtsbijstandverzekering).
What to look out for
Four points on which these policies differ most from each other.
Personal injury and the other party's costs
If the other party accepts liability, your costs are usually reimbursed outside the policy and your file costs the insurer little. If liability is disputed, the legal expenses insurer carries the case. So ask how it deals with a medical assessment and with bringing in a medical adviser; in injury cases that is the largest item of cost.
Administrative law is often a separate module
An objection to a permit or an enforcement decision does not automatically fall under the home module. Some conditions expressly exclude disputes about planning compensation, expropriation and zoning plans . If you expect developments in your area, this is the section to read carefully before you sign.
What is excluded as standard
Almost always excluded are tax disputes with the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority), conflicts arising from a business or side activities, and cases about asset management or investments. A dispute you deliberately provoked yourself does not qualify either. These three categories explain most refusals.
Report before you act
Report a dispute as soon as it arises; Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to report the event as soon as you are reasonably aware of it. If you have already instructed a lawyer, signed a settlement agreement or let a deadline pass, the insurer can refuse those costs because it no longer had any influence on the outcome.
What does your premium depend on?
- Size of the household — family members included and student children living at home
- Ownership of the home — owned, rented or an apartment right
- Areas of law included — traffic, consumer, home, employment, administrative law
- Threshold for the interest — the lower limit below which a case is not handled
- Waiting period — a longer waiting period usually brings the premium down
- Maximum reimbursement of external costs — applies as soon as you instruct a lawyer of your own
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is why comparing pays off.
Which cases are handled
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A driver runs into you and his insurer disputes liability | Yes | Yes |
| The contractor delivers a bathroom with crooked tiles and stops replying to your letters | Yes | Yes |
| The local authority grants your neighbour a permit for a roof extension that takes your light | No | Yes |
| You are made redundant and want the settlement agreement checked | Provided that | Yes |
| The Belastingdienst corrects your tax returns for three years | No | No |
| You fall out with the tenant of the flat you let | No | No |
If the financial interest stays below the threshold on your policy schedule, a case will not be taken on even within an area of law that is included.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often about this.
Why do I need a recovery module if the person at fault has to pay anyway?
Because payment only follows once liability has been accepted or established. In the meantime someone has to run your file, hear witnesses and request medical information. Without insurance you bear those costs yourself, and you only get them back if you win. Where the course of events is disputed or you are partly at fault that is far from certain, and that is exactly when the costs mount up.
Does the policy help with a conflict with my neighbours?
If the home module is included, usually yes. That covers matters such as boundaries, easements, overhanging planting or nuisance. Watch the threshold for the financial interest: a neighbour conflict often has a low monetary value, so some insurers only give advice. Ask as well whether mediation is offered, because that route usually works better than litigation in neighbour cases.
What happens to ongoing cases if I switch?
They do not come with you. A new insurer only covers disputes that arose after the start date and after the waiting period has ended. A conflict already running or foreseeable stays with your old policy or stays uninsured. So never cancel while a file is open, and let an ongoing case be finished before you switch.
Is a dispute about building work covered?
Usually under the home or consumer module, provided you gave the instructions as a private individual. The insurer does check whether you complained in good time: Article 6:89 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to protest within a reasonable time after you discovered the defect or should have discovered it. If you wait too long, you lose your rights against the contractor and the lawyer no longer has a position either.
Read more
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- Business legal expenses insurance and how a case is handled
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