Insuring your Greek Holiday Home
INSURING YOUR GREEK HOLIDAY HOME
The recent fires in Australia brought back many memories of the Greek wildfires a couple of years ago. After an unusually hot summer, many areas of Greece, especially the Peloponnese, were hit by intense and widespread fires. This force of nature, along with the risk of earthquakes, automatically brings forth the question of home insurance. The main thing to remember is that your home is no more at risk than in the UK or North America. The chances of earthquakes and fires are rarer than the news portrays and the crime rate, in most areas of rural Greece, is practically zero.
Still, insurance for a property is always a good precaution, especially when you have invested a lot of time, money and memories into it. If you have a mortgage, the bank may demand it.
If you intend to live in your Greek home permanently, then standard insurance is fine, and easy to get. If your house is going to remain empty for large parts of the years, then you will find that the mainstream insurance companies may refuse to give you any cover. There are, however, a few specialist companies that offer insurance for holiday homes, giving some peace of mind.
Before signing up, there are a few important questions to ask. The first thing is whether to add cover for earthquake damage, not offered as standard by many insurers. The best thing to do is to check with your architect whether this extra protection is needed. Modern houses and old stone houses are pretty earthquake resistant, so the tiny chance of extensive damage may not be worth the extra cost.
The next type of cover to think about is public indemnity and liability insurance. If you plan to let out your house, or even allow friends and guests to stay there, this protects you if anybody is hurt when staying in your property.
The other clause to check for, often used to wriggle out of payouts, is the demand that an empty property should be checked at least every 30 days. This should be no problem if you have friendly neighbours nearby. If not, you may have to pay a trustworthy agent to check in every month.
We have never used any of these insurance companies personally, nor are we insurance specialists, so check all of the fine details before signing anything. Again, earthquake and dire damage is rare, so do not let them intimidate you with hard-sell. You could ask any other ex-pats which company they use - word of mouth is often the best way!
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