17 Steps to Getting the Right Homeowners Insurance

It's a home insurance comparator for free. This tool allows you to make instant online quotes thanks to its personalized algorithm. This helps you know which contract to choose when taking out home insurance. By simply answering a few questions, our home insurance comparator gives you access to the indicative rates of insurance companies and gives you an estimate of the costs to be paid. The comparison generated according to your criteria will then help you in your efforts.

Summary :

• Home insurance: what does it cover?
• Home insurance: is it compulsory?
• Home insurance: why make a comparison?
• What is the cost of home insurance?
• Home insurance broker: why contact him?
• Home insurance: how to get a quote?
• How to calculate the home insurance premium?
• What about the home insurance premium?
• Home insurance: how to reduce its cost?
• Home insurance: which one to choose?
• Choose the insurer of the bank or an independent insurer?
• What steps should I take in the event of a home accident?
• Home insurance: what does your civil liability cover?
• Home insurance: what are its exclusions?
• Home insurance: how to apply?
• What is the use of the Hamon law in home insurance?
• Home insurance: how to cancel?

17 Steps to Getting the Right Homeowners Insurance

Home insurance: what does it cover?

Home insurance is one of the compulsory insurance in France. It, therefore, covers dwellings such as houses or apartments, but also their contents (mainly goods), as well as their occupants. The home insurance contract is therefore released in several complementary parts.

• Home insurance coverage against claims

The purpose of home insurance guarantees is to insure the premises and what they contain in the event of the most frequent claims in the context of home insurance (natural disasters, water damage, fires, burglary, etc.). 

• Home insurance civil liability

Civil liability is a basic guarantee that protects the occupants, but also the building or the animals and the damage they could cause. In the event of an unintentional fault on your part, the contract covers your liability for third parties.

• Coverage attached to home insurance

These are optional guarantees that insurers are increasingly offering. They may, for example, include swimming pools, unpaid rent, children's vehicles, assistance (services offered in the event of a claim covered by home insurance ), or legal protection (covering the costs of legal proceedings in the event of litigation following a claim between the insured and a third party).

Home insurance: is it compulsory?

There are several cases in which a person must take out home insurance, whether they are roommates or tenants, owners and/or co-owners. These are the following cases:

• Tenant or joint tenant: 

He must give the insurance certificate as proof of subscription to home insurance (otherwise being a reason for breaking the lease contract) to the owner. Specific insurance also requires colocations to be insured for the same risks.

• Co-owner: 

Co-ownership regulations generally require co-owners to insure themselves (civil liability) for claims that may have caused damage to the building having originated in their dwellings. The trustee on behalf of the co-ownership often takes out civil liability cover for claims that begin in the common areas of the building.

• Owner: 

Whether occupant or non-occupant, he is not required to take out home insurance. On the other hand, he will have to form his own recourses and will therefore not be compensated by an insurance company in the event of a claim.

Home insurance: why make a comparison?

To be able to lower the costs of your home insurance and find cheap home insurance, all means are good. One of the best ways is to compare the different offers on the market, in particular using an insurance comparator. Compareil.fr offers you completely free, easy to use, and fast. By testing this home insurance simulation, you can form your own opinion.

You can also contact an insurance company directly and negotiate your rates .according to your profile. Depending on whether you are a young student, an executive, or a retiree, they will not be the same, of course, because your risk profile and your needs will not be similar. Some players even offer personalized packs about your profession or your status, such as the AMF for example, which deals exclusively with civil servants.

What is the cost of home insurance?

Taking the example of an average 5-room house located in Clamart (92), our home insurance comparator shows that annual insurance policies are in a fairly wide range, from around 194 euros to more than 350 euros, the average being around 250 euros.

The calculation takes into account the postal code (92 140), the profile of the insured (tenant), and the number of living rooms (5), and the home insurance comparator sort the different insurances according to several criteria: annual rate, damage to property, compensation, additional guarantees, assistance, and civil liability.

Home insurance broker: why contact him?

In any case, it is useful to go through a home insurance broker. The estimate is free and the broker acts in the interests of the insured, by finding the best contract according to his property and his profile. He will have negotiated the prices of the contracts he sells in advance to find you home insurance that matches your profile. In this way, policyholders will benefit from more attractive cover and premiums, but also from the time and advice that this expert will have saved them.

Home insurance: how to get a quote?

There are several ways to obtain a home insurance quote and thus consult the rates offered by insurers. You can call a number set up by the insurer or your bank or go directly to the agency and contact an advisor (if it offers this type of service).

The simplest is still the online home insurance comparators because they allow you to instantly obtain the prices of dozens of offers, comparing them to each other, in particular, according to their prices and the guarantees offered. Thus Compareil.fr offers you an online home insurance comparator to find the contract best suited to your situation.

How to calculate the home insurance premium?

The contribution due to the insurance company can be very different for the same insurer depending on the value of your home and that of your property. It is then necessary to consider several factors to gauge the value of a property  :

• The FBB index:

Construction Cost Index of the French Building Federation which serves as an indexation for insurance policies. It is calculated quarterly on the cost price of an average building in Paris.

The guarantees make up the desired home insurance.

Specificities related to the place (outbuilding, terrace, swimming pool, cellar, main or secondary residence, garage, etc.).

The value of the furniture (the contents or movable capital) and any valuables.

The quality of the occupant (tenant, roommate, owner occupant or non-occupant, co-ownership).

The surface area of ​​the accommodation and/or the number of living rooms (excluding the kitchen and the bathroom).

The geographical location of the property to be insured.

What about the home insurance premium?

The price of home insurance is therefore specific to each person according to their profile and to each dwelling. The home insurance premium can be very variable, going from cheap insurance to a more expensive contract, depending on the furniture you have declared, any valuables or the type of property to be insured (for example its location on the first floor rather than the last, as it will be more prone to burglaries).

In other words, the amount of the pure premium can be calculated as follows:

Pure premium = average probability of a claim X average amount of a claim

Our home insurance comparator helps you find out the cost of your home insurance.

Home insurance: how to reduce its cost?

To reduce the amount of your home insurance premium and not pay too much, there are several ways.

One of the simplest is to read your contract carefully and analyze the additional guarantees that make it up. You must determine the guarantees that correspond, or do not, to your profile (for example childcare assistance if you have no dependent children) if when taking out your contract you had not specifically considered the latter.

Even if you will be less covered in the event of a claim, it is also possible for you to reduce the compensation ceilings for valuables, for example.

Making the principle of competition work by changing insurers is another way to obtain cheaper home insurance. It is now easier to go see a competitor of your current insurance company, the Hamon law having facilitated the termination of a contract and online comparators being effective and free.

Home insurance: which one to choose?

We often speak of MRH contracts, or “comprehensive home” about home insurance contracts. The subscription to a contract and its guarantees will be different according to the offers that the insurers propose.

When you are a tenant, it is important to know that subscribing to an MRH contract is mandatory; this is insurance for the lessor against so-called “rental” risks.

Although some co-ownership syndicates oblige their co-owners to subscribe to certain guarantees, which possibly complete the collective insurance of the building, the owner-occupiers have on the other hand no legal obligation of home insurance.

While some guarantees offer protection against material damage caused to your accommodation and its contents, others cover bodily injury, and material or immaterial damage (civil liability guarantee).

It is best to get help from a home insurance broker or use an online home insurance comparator to fully understand which home insurance will be most beneficial for you.

Although it can be daunting and complicated to read, we also advise all insureds to carefully read the general and specific conditions specific to each contract.

Choose the insurer of the bank or an independent insurer?

Several players are present on the market to allow you to take out a home insurance policy, whether it is an independent insurer or an insurance company linked to a bank. It all depends on the variety and type of guarantees you are looking for, the annual fee you are willing to pay, or the support.

In general, independent insurers are ranked higher than those linked to banks, possibly because this is their core business. Even if some banks sometimes manage to do well with personalized contracts, this allows them to offer cheap insurance contracts.

What steps should I take in the event of a home accident?

It is necessary to file a claim with your insurer within 5 working days (or even 2 working days for certain types of claims) after becoming aware of it in the event of a home claim suffered by the insured. The insurer will then let you know if the claim falls within the guarantees of your MRH contract. If this is the case, he will have to compensate you within 3 months.

The government can produce a natural disaster order so that you can be compensated for the specific framework of natural disaster claims.

To provide proof of the claim, your insurance company will require supporting documents; you will then have to produce an inventory of the damage as well as the invoices for the damaged, broken, or stolen goods. You should also know that for the expert or for your insurer, photographs will always be very useful.

Home insurance: what does your civil liability cover?

First, home insurance protects real estate and its contents according to the guarantees taken out. If home insurance covers accommodation and its contents, it is also active in covering the civil liability of its occupants in most contracts.

The law defines civil liability as: “the legal obligation imposing on any person to repair the damage caused, whether it is his fault, that of persons for whom he must answer or even of things for which he is responsible”. This risk is therefore covered by the civil liability home insurance guarantee.

There may also be cover linked to private civil liability, active when a person damages the property of others in the context of his private life.

Home insurance: what are its exclusions?

While most activities are covered by taking out a home insurance policy, some are outside the limits set by the contracts. This is also the case with liability insurance.

• Objects entrusted to the insured: 

only certain contracts cover this liability.

1. Damage caused by motor vehicles (for example cars come within the scope of automobile insurance).
2. Damage caused by dangerous dogs.
3. Damage to self and loved ones.

• Professional activities: 

Exclusion from any professional, public service, or union activity.

• Intentional damage: 

Existence of intentional fault, therefore exclusion of guarantee.

Home insurance: how to apply?

First of all, you must be able to do so to take out home insurance: you must be an owner (occupant or non-occupant) or a tenant.

In addition, you will first need to request quotes, either:

Directly by going to the selected insurance company, in an agency to see all the terms with an advisor, after having chosen the guarantees making up your contract.

The comparators will send you to the website of the organizations whose home insurance quotes you have selected if you wish to join online.

By going through an online home insurance comparator (we advise you to carry out home insurance simulations to compare the offers and find a cheap one, which will cover you up to your expectations).

What is the use of the Hamon law in home insurance?

The home insurance contract generally has a duration of 12 months with a principle of tacit renewal. This means that if you do not tell your insurance, your contract will continue to cover you every year and the premiums will continue to be deducted from your account.

The consumer law, known as the “Hamon law”, which came into force on January 1, 2015, has however changed the rules of the game to the benefit of the insured. The latter could previously only cancel his home insurance within the two months preceding the deadline for the first year of subscription. He can now terminate at any time after 1 year of membership (with one month's notice). This allows him to play the competition and lower the prices offered to him.

Home insurance: how to cancel?

It is now very easy to terminate your insurance policy by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt and one month's notice from the end of the first year of the contract thanks to the consumer law known as the Hamon law for Home Insurance. This law favors the consumer who can now more easily compare offers from different insurers.

It is also possible to terminate before the end of the first year under certain conditions:

In the event of cancellation by your insurer after a claim.

In the event of an increase in your contribution not stipulated by the contract. In this case, you then have 1 month to request termination.

In the event of a reduction in risk if your insurer does not agree to the reduction in the premium.

In the event of an aggravation of the risk covered (divorce, change of residence or professional, retirement, etc.).