When you are going to choose your holiday rental, in France or abroad, or rent your house to holidaymakers, you must worry about the insurance of your responsibilities in the event of fire or water damage.
Vacation rental insurance against fire or water damage
To insure the vacation rental against fire or water damage, three scenarios are possible:
The owner takes care of the home insurance
- Either the owner and his insurer renounce to exercise recourse against the liable tenant in the event of fire or water damage caused to his property. This is called the “waiver of recourse” or the “waiver of recourse”. This clause must appear, on the one hand, in the rental agreement, and on the other hand, in the owner’s insurance contract. But in the event of water or fire damage, the tenant’s responsibility remains entire with regard to neighbors and third parties, other than the owner. He must therefore check in his multi-risk home contract whether he is well covered for this situation.
- Either the owner has taken out insurance “on whose behalf it will belong” with waiver of recourse: the tenant is covered by the owner’s guarantee for fire and water damage, even with regard to neighbors and third parties .
But, in these two cases, the other damages committed by the tenant remain at his expense.
The holidaymaker finds the solution in his own insurance contracts
The holidaymaker can be insured by the multi-risk home contract for his main residence, under the holiday civil liability guarantee (stay/travel). He must check whether the scope and amount of the guarantee are sufficient, taking into account the value of the rented house or apartment.
For rentals abroad, the holidaymaker’s insurance may cover it in the country concerned.
Check with the insurer for the territorial limits of the contract.
To know
The resort guarantee included in multi-risk home contracts must be distinguished from the resort liability insurance.
- The holiday guarantee covers some of your goods when they are damaged by events covered by the contract (water damage, fire, etc.), during your holidays in France or abroad.
- The holiday civil liability guarantee covers your liability when you are a tenant or occupant for the duration of your stay if you are the cause of one of the events covered by the contract (fire, water damage).
The holidaymaker takes out home insurance for the duration of the rental
In the absence of one of the two previous solutions, the holidaymaker can take out a multi-risk home contract, limited to the duration of his rental holiday.
Holiday rental: practical advice
Before renting
| You are a tenant | You are the owner |
| Resort liability cover Check the amount and scope of holiday liability cover included in your multi-risk home contract. If you do not have this guarantee, ask the owner or the agency that put you in touch with him. If the owner and his insurer have waived all recourse against you, this exempts you from insuring your rental risks. On the other hand, do not forget to insure your responsibility with regard to third parties. If necessary, ask your insurer for an extended warranty.The cancellation guarantee Check if your holiday insurance includes a “holiday rental cancellation” guarantee. This guarantee provides for the reimbursement of the rent or the deposit paid if you are obliged to cancel your rental for a serious reason (death of a loved one, accident, illness). Its amount remains limited (for example, 30 times the index which appears in the specific conditions of your contract). |
Tell your insurer that you are considering seasonal rental of your property. Check that your owner’s civil liability guarantee applies to tenants, especially in the event of bodily injury. If necessary, add the “recourse of the tenants against the landlord” guarantee. It will come into play if a lack of maintenance of the building is the cause of damage caused to the tenant by a fire or water damage.Ask : – either provide your insurer with insurance “on behalf of whom it will belong” or have the “waiver of recourse” clause added (if this has not already been done); – or the tenant to insure his rental risks (responsibility of the tenant vis-à-vis the owner) and the recourse of the neighbors (responsibility of the tenant with regard to the neighbours). |
During the stay
- The inventory, whether you are a tenant or an owner
| At the arrival | At the beginning |
| An inventory and an inventory of the objects made available are generally requested. On this occasion, all anomalies noted by the tenant are noted. | The owner or the rental agency again checks the inventory and the inventory in the presence of the tenant. They note the deteriorations and missing objects in order to be reimbursed by the tenant. If the latter has paid for the damage, he can ask the owner or the rental agency for a receipt by which the owner will acknowledge being definitively compensated. |
- In the event of fire, water damage, accident
| You are a tenant | You are the owner |
| Immediately notify the owner or the rental agency, and your own insurer, especially if the owner has not waived recourse. You are injured and the owner’s liability could be called into question, for example, due to a lack of maintenance of the premises, if possible collect testimonies on the circumstances of the accident. Ask the gendarmerie or the police station to draw up a report. |
Immediately report this loss to your insurer. Have an expertise carried out before the end of the holidays. If you are unable to obtain it quickly, draw up an inventory with the tenant that mentions the damage; failing this, have a bailiff’s report drawn up. |
The absence of your main residence during the holidays
Some preventive measures
- Comply with the requirements of your multi-risk home contract in terms of prevention (closing shutters, installing an alarm, etc.). Otherwise, the risk is to receive no compensation or reduced compensation in the event of theft.
- Call a monitoring company if necessary.
Long term inhabitation
Most multi-risk home contracts provide for a non-habitation clause which suspends the theft guarantee beyond a certain period of non-habitation (generally 60 to 90 days depending on the contract). In this case, consult your insurer.