Insuring your own home: More than half of home insurance policies rated “very good”

Insure your home
More than half of the home insurance policies are “very good”

18.09.2024, 10:59 a.m.

Listen to article

Residential buildings provide financial protection against damage to the property caused by fire, water, storms and natural disasters and are the most important insurance for owners. Warentest reveals the best policies.

Homeowners are well advised to protect their own property with building insurance. According to Finanztest, the insurance should cover four areas: fire insurance, insurance against damage caused by tap water, storms and hail, as well as other natural hazards such as avalanches, floods and landslides. Insurance against natural hazards is also useful in less-threatened areas. As a result of climate change, heavy rain and flooding are occurring everywhere.

The testers took a close look at 182 tariffs from 67 providers and show price examples for a model house in two locations – Geiselberg in Rhineland-Palatinate and Gera in Thuringia. And point out that consumers should make sure that important additional services such as gross negligence are also insured. If the insurer reduces the benefit because the damage was caused by gross negligence, for example by leaving a candle burning unattended, Finanztest considers the scope of insurance to be inadequate and rated the tariff as “unsatisfactory”.

57 of the tested contracts failed

Not all natural hazards are automatically insured. Heavy rain, flooding, avalanches and landslides must be included separately (elementary protection). This protection is important. The testers recommend that you always prove it successfully. Therefore, only tariffs that offer elemental damage insurance were included in the test. The price per tariff includes.

57 of the contracts tested failed as a result. And more bad news: the policies are becoming more and more expensive. In 2024, prices rose by 7.5 percent – this was the second highest adjustment in the past ten years. The highest price adjustment a year earlier was 14.7 percent.

The good news: More than half – namely 94 tariffs – convince with “very good” conditions. The best tariffs for the model house in Gera are available from Dema (“Immo Protect Top Protection”), Die Bayerische (“Prestige”) and Domcura (“Top Protection”) from 543 euros annual premium, in Geiselberg from GVV Direkt (“Top Protection”) for 624 euros.