A policy per event · overlap · gaps
What are you insured for?
The question is rarely whether you are insured, but which policy an event lands on. Below you can go through a number of everyday losses and see which insurance picks them up.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Waar bent u voor verzekerd?.
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
Insurance is organised by what gets damaged, not by what happened. Your own belongings in the house fall under home contents insurance, the building itself under buildings insurance, damage you cause to someone else under liability insurance, and a dispute for which you need a lawyer under legal expenses insurance. One event often affects two policies at once.
An example. Your washing machine leaks. The floor of the neighbours below is damaged: that is liability, provided you can be blamed under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. Your own laminate floor is home contents or buildings, depending on how it was laid. The washing machine itself is usually not insured, because an inherent defect in the appliance is excluded. Three different answers for one leak, and that pattern repeats itself with almost every loss.
Where it goes wrong is at the transition between areas of life. A job you do at home falls under your private policy. The same work for a client does not, because personal liability insurance excludes damage connected with a profession or business. Motor vehicles are also excluded on that policy: for those there is car insurance, with the compulsory third-party liability cover under Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare personal liability insurance (AVP).
Four everyday losses and the policy behind them
These four show how the classification works out.
Your child throws a ball through a window
Damage to someone else's property caused by a child is a classic case for liability insurance. For children up to the age of fourteen, Article 6:169 of the Dutch Civil Codeapplies: the parent is liable, even without any fault of their own. If it is your own window, that falls under the glass cover on your buildings or home contents insurance, because damage to your own property is never covered by liability insurance.
The dog bites a passer-by
For animals the strict liability of Article 6:179 of the Dutch Civil Codeapplies: as keeper you are liable for damage your animal causes, whether or not you did anything wrong. The victim's injury falls under your liability insurance. The vet's bills for your own dog do not. There is separate pet insurance for that.
A roof tile blows off your roof onto a car
As the owner of the building, you are, under Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code liable where the building does not meet the standards that may be expected of it. If the roof was in poor condition, that is a strong argument for liability, but at the same time a reason for the insurer to point to the exclusion of deferred maintenance. Keeping up with maintenance matters here both legally and in insurance terms.
You damage something you had borrowed
Here most cover comes unstuck on the care, custody and control exclusion: damage to property you had in your care, hired, borrowed or worked on is usually excluded on liability insurance. Some policies have a limited contribution for items borrowed from friends or family. Check that point in your conditions, because the differences between companies are large here.
What does your premium depend on?
- Household composition: single or family determines the group of insured persons
- Living situation: owned or rented, and the address of the home
- Sums insured: the maximum payment for each policy
- Excess: often set separately for each policy
- Chosen additions: glass, valuables, legal expenses or cover abroad
- Claims history: recent claims count in the premium and when cover is assessed
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Liability insurance | Home contents insurance (inboedelverzekering) |
|---|---|---|
| At a dinner you knock a glass of red wine over your host's carpet | Yes | No |
| A barbecue on your balcony sets fire to the neighbours' awning | Yes | No |
| Your laptop slides off the table at home onto the tiled floor | No | Provided that |
| Your bicycle is stolen from the building's communal storeroom | No | Provided that |
| You do paid work for an acquaintance and your drill goes through their glass door | No | No |
| A spark from your open fire burns a hole in your own sofa | No | Yes |
The question is not what happened but whose property was damaged. That determines which policy the loss lands on.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Does liability insurance cover me for everything?
No. That policy covers damage you cause to others: injury and damaged property. Excluded are damage to your own possessions, damage caused with a motor vehicle, damage connected with a profession or business, and damage to property you had in your care. Damage caused deliberately is also excluded under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Can one loss fall under two policies?
That happens regularly, for example with a leak that affects both your floor and the neighbours' contents. Insurers settle that between themselves under a contribution arrangement: the policy most specifically aimed at the loss takes precedence. You do not have to choose; report the loss in both places and let the insurers divide it between them.
What if no policy covers the loss?
Then you bear it yourself, and with certain risks that is a deliberate choice. Small losses up to the amount of your excess you keep yourself in any case. Uninsurable risks include flooding from a primary flood defence, earthquake, acts of war and nuclear reactions. There is no commercial cover for those categories on the Dutch market.
How do I know whether I am insured twice?
Look at the add-ons. Legal expenses cover is sometimes held both separately and within a package, and a travel policy and a credit card can both cover luggage. Double cover does not give a double payment, because indemnity insurance pays no more than the actual loss. So you pay premium twice for cover once. That is usually the first thing we drop when we review your policies.
Read more
Within Why we work with different insurers
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