french house insurance

[Dave]

Hi, following an advert in Living France we currently have our house in Mayenne insured with Hiscox, but have just been informed that they are no longer insuring French properties unless they are also insuring the main UK home, and as we live in a tied property that is not possible. Can anyone please recommend a good insurance company for our French property?

Thanks,

Dave.

[woolybanana]

Mutuelle de Poitiers

[Dave]

Thanks, but can anyone recommend an English company (my French is not that good!!)

[cooperlola]

I'm with Pacifica which is Credit Agricole's insurance arm.  You can access their services via Britline (http://www.ca-normandie.fr/ ) they will give you English speaking help if you need it.  They were superb when I had to claim last year (although I admit I didn't bother with the English speaking bit myself).

[Gardengirl]

We're with thse people, originally recommended by someone on this forum:

Agence EATON
GENERALI ASSURANCES
Tel : + 33 (0) 2 97 40 80 20
Fax : + 33 (0) 2 9746 44 31
ORIAS 07 020 237
www.french-insurance.com

They are French, but speak excellent English, and all paperwork has a translation when it arrives. We've always dealt with them over the phone. We were pleased to use them on arrival here, and have continued as they are very competitive; however, we haven't had to claim from them. 

 

[Loiseau]

I am with these people www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/ for my French property.

They do not require you to have your main house insurance with them.

I have not yet had to make a claim, so I can't tell you whether they pay up OK when necessary!

Angela

[Stan Streason]

I found the "English" insurers very expensive.

I had the help of a very good estate agent but he arranged for a couple of local agents of French insurers to come around and give me a quote.  Both agents spoke english, both saw what I had, the pool area, the size and number of rooms, the quality (or otherwise) of my locks etc and both quotes were significantly cheaper than the english equivalent.

Fortunately I havent had to claim.

[virginia.c]

I used Intasure on the recommendation of friends. Not having had to make a claim so far means that i have no idea how they would perform (rather like a previous poster). I did however get a subsequent quote from credit agricole when i was opening my French bank account and they were cheaper. Not sure if it was a special deal for second homers but it might be worth investigating? Lots of bank staff seem to have some English.

[Charly]

Sorry, no experience of English-speaking insurers but do look around and get more than one quote because they can vary quite a lot between companies.  And when re-insuring/renewing the policy, always query the figure quoted.  In our experience there  has always been a significant difference (upwards) from year to year and each time we complain or query it, the quote comes back much lower,sometimes lower than the previous year - it's almost like a test to see if you are paying attention !! [:'(]

[cooperlola]

You could also try Nick Chubb (broker) here:

http://www.asttral.com/

He works mostly with French companies but will help you with the language aspect.