Personal liability insurance

[Daley]

Hi

Is it advisable to have personal liability insurance in France as it is in Germany.  The reason being, if you break something for example in another person's house , they will claim on your insurance.   Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Dale

[anniefromwales]

Was offered personal liability ins along with house ins. Not that I am expecting to be sued for smashing someone else's best china but it covers things like if I got into a dispute over unsatisfactory good or services, you get legal advice and support. Anyway it was quite cheap and seemed a good idea especially since I was having work done on the house. So I took it.

[WendyG]

I am not an expert, but when my daughter stayed with some friends in France years ago for around 2 months, they asked if she had personal liability insurance.  I knew nothing of this and took advice and was told that it was essential in France because if say "she was distracted and walked into someone/cyclist or the like" and caused them injury or loss the insurance would cover the cost.

I enquired and discovered that this could be added to the house insurance at very little cost (sometimes it is automatically included) as you discov ered.     It would appear to be a very good idea as one never knows what misfortune may befall !  In the event it was not needed .    Frankly I would be more worried about causing an accident than breaking their china unless of course it was antique Sevres!

WendyG

[giantpanda]

Hi!

It is a standard part of a " multirisques habitation ". It would be playing lottery to have none.

Legal support is not necessarily a must, and depend really if you can afford it, and your life style.

Yours,

giantpanda

[allanb]

I don't disagree with any of the answers, but I'm curious about why this kind of insurance is apparently seen as something unique to France (and maybe Germany). The risk of causing damage or injury to a third party - and being sued - is just as great in Britain, surely?

[Pierre ZFP]

You are supposed to have it in Luxembourg too.  It was a few euros extra to my house insurance.

It's a sort of  'No Blame' insurance. 

As an example, last year, the wife of a colleague here in Lux slipped on ice outside her sister's house and broke her leg.  She claimed against her sister's insurance for loss of earnings etc and was paid a substantial sum very quickly and didn't have to prove negligence against the sister for not sweeping the path etc. 

Doesn't seem to be abused as one might think.

[andyh4]

Strangely in the ever increasing sue culture of the UK, I have never known anyone being sued for breaking a glass at a dinner party.

 

On the other hand I do know of a case where the insurance was used for a broken glass in Germany - around 15Dm if I remember rightly.

[Jay]

What sort of cost is insurance? We have just received our renewal today and it is 600€ which covers our house, Gite, personal liability and third part cover including pool.