First it’s important to know that having home insurance is not mandatory if you are not renting a property, if you are the sole owner of the home, and if you’re not living in a shared space such as block of flats. But there are some aspects you should consider nonetheless.
1) Home insurance is required if you have a mortgage
The requirement is not a legal one but if your mortgage has been agreed in France, then it’s more than highly likely that one of the requirements of your mortgage agreement is to ensure your home is covered against major risks that could jeopardise its value. If you are no longer insured and the bank find out, you would be in violation of your contract. As a result, your mortgage lender would be entitled to request a refund of the full amount within 30 days… So it’s probably best to avoid that. If you don’t want to pay for cover because you think it’s too expensive then consider running a comparison analysis of French home insurers before risking it all.
2) Being insured covers you from loss
What if your home becomes completely or partially destroyed through fire, storm damage, flooding, or landslip (the list goes on)? If you are not insured you are therefore technically self-insuring your house. But you should be aware that no one will come to your rescue if you can’t live in your home following a disaster or if you’re in financial trouble after such an event. Not being insured means you’re alone. Is it really worth risking a couple of hundred thousand euros or more to save just a few hundred a year? For most people the answer is no.
3) Home insurance protects your liability
Whatever happens, if you or anything you own causes harm or damage to someone else or someone else’s property, you will be directly liable for fixing, or compensating for, the damage. When this involves corporate damage things can escalate very quickly. So is it worth risking your peace of mind and thousands if not millions of euros just to save a few hundred a year? Probably not. Remember that you can always change your provider in France thanks to the loi Hamon (a recently introduced law allowing consumers to change their insurance provider after 1 year). So don’t hesitate to compare your home insurance policy against the rest of the market once in a while.