Insurance companies providing cover for CDH/B&B's

[Mike1958]

Many thanks Miki,

Having spent a lot of time in France over the last 20 plus years I am certainly under no illusion that life here (as with the reference to the road to Paris) is not a short cut to a generous income - actually the opposite is probably true in most cases. For ourselves we have given up what many would call a pain free life without financial worry in the UK to live a life in France that we have always dreamed of.

Our goal is to wake up in the morning and look out of our windows and see either snow or sun, work pays for that privilege and as such if we can pay our bills, put food in our bellies and wake up looking at the mountains next week we will continue to be happy.

Working our socks of for little return is fine, and to be truthful it is the many differences between the UK and here that makes living here  so special. Understanding what is different just helps us avoid potential difficulties in the future.

Thanks again for all the helpfull comments.

Regards,

Mike

 

 

 

[Cerise]

Mike1958 - do not be so sure that if your house burned down it would be covered!  It might be in the end, but if the cause was one of your guests smoking in bed technically, under French law, it is HIS insurance that should pay.  This is not said to scare you, but try to make sure your guests have insurance.  As Miki says the French expect to have Résponsabilté Civile (spellling?) insurance but the English do not.  I am saying this from first hand knowledge as I translated for some unfortunate people whose house did burn down!  There was a suspicion that someone else was a fault and it took forever and a VERY long inquest for a payout to be made.  It certainly opened our eyes and has made us take lots of extra precautions.  I could not believe that the insurance company kept asking for receipts and proof of ever having owned things when literally everything had gone.  We have since taken photos of all our rooms and deposited them with our insurance company along with a copy of our removals inventory and made sure our more precious documents are in fire proof boxes.  It was also worth knowing that the insurance only allowed them rental money for an equivalent property for ONE year (and apparently this is standard) when it actually took THREE years until their house was rebuilt.  English insurance tends to say under similar circumstances that of course everyone has a sofa, a TV etc so they pay out if your claim is reasonable.  French insurance says PROVE you had a sofa and a TV - and believe me that can be pretty difficult. 

You are right about needing to know the differences.  We thought we'd done our homework but it wasn't until I actually had to deal with this for someone else that I realised how it actually was.  We all keep saying (me the worst) that we must get round to photcopying our passports, car registrations etc. but how many people have actually done it.  It frightened me into being a lot more cautious.  I guess we all think it won't happen to us - and I hope it never does - but we need to know how we would be treated if it did.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Cerise"]

We have since taken photos of all our rooms and deposited them with our insurance company along with a copy of our removals inventory and made sure our more precious documents are in fire proof boxes. 

We all keep saying (me the worst) that we must get round to photcopying our passports, car registrations etc. but how many people have actually done it. 

[/quote]

I'd just like to say that Cerise, Miki and others have made some extremely good points here.  I have an inbuilt distrust of insurance companies just as they have an innate distrust of their customers, and I take the view that they won't take your word for anything.

Years ago, shortly after I got my first digital camera, I went round the house and the toolshed and photographed everything we had.  Including pictures of all our books, cutlery drawers, china, ornaments, glassware, the lot.  I did the same thing when we moved in here.  All birth and marriage certificates, licences, passports etc. are scanned.  Whenever we buy a new appliance etc. we photograph it in situ.

Copies of all the images are kept

1. on the PC
2. on the laptop (backed up from the PC automatically, weekly)

3. on a backup Internet storage site (backed up from the PC daily)

4. on a rewritable DVD which is updated after any major purchase and stored in a waterproof, fireproof box in the barn

This may appear OTT but it actually requires very little effort to maintain once the initial setup has been accomplished.