Insurance for the naïve! French or English?

[Rosyposy_2001]

Can anyone please tell me whether they have found it cheaper or more beneficial to insure through an English rather than French insurer? Also whether anyone can admit to being as naïve and careless as we were!

We purchased our holiday cottage in June, but because of a contractual letting agreement which the previous owner had, we did not occupy it until September. The bulk of our possessions were not taken over, or purchased in France, until November. To our horror, on our next visit just before Christmas, we discovered that our cottage, and the 2 opposite, had been broken into and about £1000 worth of items, mostly brand new bedding, towels and cooking utensils and new portable cd player and vacuum cleaner, still in their packaging, had been stolen. Sadly, a Lloyd Loom linen basket, a wedding present to my mother 60 years ago had also been taken, presumably just to transport the spoils, and to me this is irreplaceable. Fortunately only a small amount of physical damage had been done to the property itself. The gendarmes told us that it was most likely done by Eastern European "travellers" taking items for their own survival, plus a few luxury items to sell-on. This is apparently not uncommon.

I telephoned the French insurance company, confident that our home and contents were well covered as we are paying almost 3 times as much as the previous owner, but after listing everything we could remember to be missing and sending all the receipts we could find, we were shocked to find that we would get absolutely nothing as we are not covered for Theft! Yes, with hindsight I know we were crazy not to read the small print thoroughly, even in French, but we took on exactly the same policy as the previous owner, and after all the stress on the day of signing the Acte de Vente (that's another story I won't go into here!) it got put aside and was one of those jobs we were going to do over Christmas. It never occurred to us that Theft would not be automatically covered, nor did we dream that our precious little cottage would be burgled within a couple of weeks of moving our things in! Naïve, but there it is!

I have contacted our French insurers with a view to upgrading the insurance, but for future years wondered whether anyone had had a similar experience or could tell me on which side of the Channel they had found the best value insurance. I like to "buy French" wherever possible but in this instance I am very much open to suggestions!

Thanks

Rosemary

[Ron Avery]

Rosemary

Sorry to hear about your experiences En France, don't let it put you off.

I doubt that you will get cover in the UK from any of the "big boys", they are not interested as they don't have the post codes to assess the risks in your area.

It seems odd that a contents policy did not cover theft, are you sure that your claim was not refused because the house had been left empty for an extended period?  Many UK and French insurers would have not have paid out on your theft claim even if you had been covered for theft as many policies exclude properties left empty for more than 30 days or more. 

 There are probably members of this forum who have second or holiday homes that are left empty for extended periods, who will be able to tell you of suitable insurers and policies.

[Russethouse]

Rosyposy, if theft was not included, what were you actually insured for ???

(Picture a questioning expression, at this point)

[Pierre ZFP]

When I first took out building and content insurance (Axa insurance co.)  I was told quite plainly that I would not be covered for theft untill I had put shutters at all the downstairs windows.  This was a little odd as the previous owner clearly had never done this as there were no fittings.

Do you have a similar clause?

[Teamedup]

Most, (I won't say all, there are exceptional ones that don't) french insurers require shutters and won't insure without them. And many require either shutters or bars on all windows.This has always been the case.

[Anton Redman]

Our insurance company - "Muttualle de Poitiers" requires all available protection to be activated if you are away from the house for more than 48 hours. This clearly means closing the shutters if installed.

I could understand the requirement for shutters with the windows 2 or 3 mm glass that were installed when we purchased to house.

I exchanged letters with my agency stating that as their conditions did not specefy shutters on the first floor ( US 2nd Floor)  and we would not be installing them.

I would stick with a French insurance company BUT with somebody I had a good relationship with

[Rosyposy_2001]

We have shutters to both the front door, (which was not touched!), and the downstairs window, (the upstairs rooms have Velux rooflights), but the downstairs shutters had been forced open far enough to reach in and smash a pane of glass and then turn the handle on the locking bar. We have now had an extra bar put across the inside so that it would be much harder to force again, and shall be buying an added lock for the bar on our next visit. However, I suppose anyone determined enough would still get in somehow!

On the papers we were given from Crédit Mutuel (we are with Suravenir Assurances), there are no clauses about prolonged absences or shutters or anything else, just a brief statement that we are covered for "multirisques habitation".  These "multirisques", if I had had the sense to read them properly and not make assumptions, list "Fire/similar events, natural catastrophes, water damage, Défense-Recours (??), and breakage by ice " and do not mention theft, but do not exclude it in writing either! I have since been told that it is normal for a French policy to exclude theft although it is not mentioned, you simply take it "as read"! Wish we'd known that before!

We visit our property,if only for a day-trip (we are lucky enough to live only a few miles from Plymouth so can take advantage of BFs cheap offer in our local paper), on average once a month, and the previous owner, who lives in the next village, holds the key for us and passes every day, often calling in to check that all is well, so the cottage is actually visited more often than when it was owned my him as a summer let. Fortunately for us, the owners of the 2 cottages opposite, which were also broken into, are returning from Paris to live there permanently soon, so at least the hamlet will then be occupied all the time, and any break-in attempt will be more noticeable, although we are on a main road anyway, with cars passing frequently, even at night.

We are trying not to let it put us off, but it does feel like our dream of so many years of owning a little hideaway in France has been a little spoilt by what happened, I don't think we shall ever be able to approach the cottage with such light hearts and anticipation again! Still, many lessons learned if nothing else!

Thanks to all who replied.

Rosemary

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

http://www.ffsa.fr/

This site gives details of what is and isn't covered by French insurance.

As you say, one can insure against theft but it is not part of the standard contract.

[Will]

I think I'd personally always use a French insurer for anything French - I've heard too many horror stories of British insurers charging inflated fees and being very awkward about handling claims abroad, partcularly if assessors get involved. But equally I'd rather know that any claims would be dealt with fairly rather than just going for the lowest cost. Insurers anywhere are well known for finding all possible reasons to avoid paying out.

In France, it seems that local agents have a lot of say in whether claims go through smoothly so if you have a good relationship with a particular local office it pays to keep on the right side of them. I can't see us moving from our friendly AGF man, though we may from time to time make noises about possibly moving our business, just so that he doesn't get too greedy.