A leaking tap connector – €9,000 worth of damage to a neighbour, a burst tap mixer – €20,000 worth of damage to a neighbour, house on fire – €50,000 worth of damage to neighbours due to water used to extinguish the fire... Despite the large amounts of damage, many homeowners either do not have liability insurance or the sum insured is too low.

“Whether it’s a water accident, a fire or a tree taken down in a storm, liability insurance cases are mostly related to damage caused to a neighbour. Unfortunately, such liability insurance cases can often end up being much more expensive than the average home insurance claim. Without liability insurance, the party responsible for the damage will still have to compensate for the damage caused, i.e. for the renovation of the neighbours’ home,” says Dagmar Gilden, Asset Insurance Product Manager at Seesam.

Damage from fire fighting water can run to more than €50,000

As a general rule, the more neighbours you have, the higher the sum insured should be. Another common suggestion is to increase the amount of liability insurance by €10,000 for each additional storey.

“Based on Seesam’s experience, I would recommend €20,000 as the minimum sum insured. Anything less and the policyholder runs the risk that in the event of an accident, the sum insured will not be sufficient given today’s prices and part of the damage will fall on the party responsible. It would be better still to go for €50,000, because in the event of a fire, for example, the water damage to neighbours resulting from firefighting alone could be so great that the sum insured would be needed to rebuild the apartment. One of our clients recently suffered such an accident, and the neighbour who caused the damage had to cover substantial repair costs,” says Gilden.

According to the insurer, it is difficult to predict claim events and their extent. People are also often unaware of the value of the furnishings in the apartment next door. Seesam’s statistics reveal a case where a broken tap mixer caused damage to only one neighbour’s flat but the damage amounted to €20,000.

The recent case of a leaking tap connector may have spared the apartment of the person responsible, but damage to the apartments of the two downstairs neighbours is currently estimated at €9,000 and could rise. In this latter case, the sum insured is €10,000. We also know of a case where an elderly person forgot to close their tap mixer and this ended up damaging the interior of no less than five apartments. Fortunately, the damage to apartments further away was smaller and the total indemnity did not exceed €10,000,” said Gilden of the damage caused to neighbours.

Terraces houses face risk of water leaks, private residences deal with flying roofs and trampolines

Residents of apartment buildings are not the only ones who should be thinking of their neighbours. For example, there is a risk of water leakage in terraced houses and semi-detached houses. “Terraced houses usually share raising mains with neighbours with the next home over being either immediately or diagonally adjacent. If a tap mixer were to break on the second floor, your neighbours could also be affected by the leak,” explained the insurer. Saunas and fireplaces are also potential sources of fire hazards in terraced houses.

Damage cases are slightly different for private residents. We have seen an incident where a storm ripped off part of the roof of an outbuilding and smashed it against a neighbour’s car. The damage amounted to €9,000. Trampolines left unattended for the autumn-winter period are also popular and cause damage by flying into neighbours’ windows. The storm in October, for example, caused solar panels to fly off a roof and land in a neighbour’s garden,” said the insurer, listing typical liability insurance cases involving private residences.

Various water leaks still make up the largest share, but homes are not the only areas that benefit from liability insurance. For example, in a collision between a cyclist and a vehicle, the damage is compensated under casco insurance, but if the cyclist is at fault, they are the ones presented with the recovery claim. The most expensive case last year was around €6,000. Last year, there were also a number of cases where a dog attacked another animal, with the highest indemnity for medical costs reaching €2,000. The insurer also said there have been cases of dogs attacking people. Luckily for Seesam’s clients, such cases have been limited to ripped clothes.