France Holiday Home Insurance

For those wishing to buy a holiday home or potential retirement property, France offers tremendous opportunities. France conjures up romantic notions of traditional French farm-houses, local vineyards producing quality wines and an atmosphere of a laid back way of life that many Britons would aspire to. France is also a country with many ski resorts, providing a thrill seeking French holiday in the snow. But we can’t forget the Mediterranean coastline and glamour of southern France, which can offer a luxurious sunny French holiday.

There is no doubt that buying a French holiday home has been very popular in past years, providing not only beautiful scenes and climates, but also in a financial sense. Although we are all aware that the pound isn’t as strong as it once was against the Euro, the difference in the cost of living in France is still looking positive for those with a holiday home in France.

For many the desire to buy a holiday home in France proves hard to resist. Whether you have the holiday home purely for your own use which may mean leaving the property for long periods between visits or let for holiday use to cover some of the outgoings, you need to have the right holiday home insurance and our clients take advantage of our flexible policy that covers all bases.

At “Insurance for Holiday Homes” we understand that looking for holiday home insurance in France can be very stressful. The language barrier, especially when it comes to complicated terminology, can become a struggle and it can be very difficult to find out what exactly you’re covered for, or to report a claim if the worst were to happen.

Fortunately “Insurance For Holiday homes” can provide a solution. We are specialists in holiday home insurance abroad, but we operate entirely in the UK. You can call us and speak to our team of advisors in our UK office, claims are reported to our UK claims department and our policy is underwritten at Lloyd’s of London, one of the world’s leading insurers.

We built our policy from the ground up 10 years ago with only holiday home owners in mind. We are proud to maintain a very high level of customer service. Our friendly team are waiting on the other end of the phone to provide a personal and professional service.

Benefits of insuring your French holiday home through “Insurance For Holiday Homes”

As a policy holder you will benefit from a comprehensive level of cover, here is a brief outline of the level of insurance cover we can provide.

Buildings Insurance – Loss or damage to the property caused by – fire, lightning, explosion – aircraft – earthquake – storm – flood – escape of water, and frost damage – impact – falling trees – locating leaking water – accidental breakage to fixed glass, ceramic hobs and sanitary fixtures – riot and malicious damage – theft or attempted theft – plus many more.
Contents Insurance – Loss or damage to the contents caused by – fire, lightning, explosion – aircraft – earthquake – storm – flood – escape of water, and frost damage – impact – falling trees – accidental damage to mirrors, glass tops and fixed glass in furniture – riot and malicious damage – theft or attempted theft – plus many more.
Your Policy will be underwritten at Lloyd’s of London – one of the worlds largest and most established insurer’s.
Accidental damage cover, for contents – available with the option to extend accidental damage cover to contents caused by guests staying at your holiday home.
Accidental damage cover, for buildings – available with the option to extend accidental damage cover to Buildings caused by guests staying at your holiday home.
Loss of rent cover for up-to £35,000 – for pre-booked rentals following a loss covered under the buildings.
Alternative accommodation cover – following loss covered under the buildings.
Legal Liability to the public of £5,000,000 – this is a crucial element of cover for any holiday home owner’s particularly when the home is being let for holiday use, due to the increasing trends to towards suing for damages to property or injury.
Accidents to Domestic Staff – cover for bodily injury to domestic staff employed in connection with the insured premises.
Emergency Travel cover – in the event of a serious claim, you can be covered for up to £2,000 if you need to get to the property quickly.
Swimming Pool cover included – cover automatically included under buildings insurance along with Legal Liability to the public.

Reasonable requirements

Due to the increased risk of escape of water, theft, or unnoticed damage that comes with insuring French holiday homes as opposed to a main residence, insurers have been known to make unreasonable demands of their clients to validate their policy, which can be found after digging through the small print. However at Insurance For Holiday Homes we are transparent about our simple requirements:

The property must be checked internally once every 60 days – this is to prevent any damage from growing over a long period of time. Most insurers will require this, or ask that all claims must be reported within 60 days of the damage.
Minimum security requirements when contents are insured for more than £30,000 – we ask that all external doors are fitted with five lever deadlocks or the European equivalent, which may include doors with multipoint locking systems and all windows are fitted with key operated locks, or shutters with internal catches.
Escape of water requirements between Nov 1st and March 31st – to be covered against escape of water you have 3 options, either turn your water supply off at the stopcock at the first available entry to the home and turn on your hot and cold taps to drain the water from the system. Alternatively you can keep your home heated at a constant 10°c 24 hours a day with any loft hatches left open on a thermostatically controlled system (excluding night storage heating systems). Or if you have a frost stat setting on your heating system, that needs to be set to operate at no less than 4°c.