Homeowners Insurance
The associated residential building insurance (VWG for short) is a property insurance that insures a defined residential building against the risks and costs insured in the insurance contract . The insured building can be used purely for residential purposes or contain a commercial part. It is crucial that at least fifty percent of the insured property is used for residential purposes. The elementary basic risks that can normally be insured are fire , tap water , storms and hail . The associated and additional costs are included in the insurance contract. In theory, the policyholder can insure each insured risk individually with an insurance company.
In addition to the elementary basic risks, most insurers in Germany also offer extended insurance protection against, for example, extended elementary risks. These include, for example, floods , earthquakes , subsidence or slides. Insurance protection can be offered individually by each insurer. The model terms and conditions for associated home insurance from the Association of the German Insurance Industry offer a uniform reference point .
Legal basis
Residential building insurance is an insurance contract and is therefore legally subject to the Civil Code (BGB), Commercial Code (HGB) and Insurance Contract Act (VVG). In return for an insurance premium , the customer concludes a contract with a company. Thus, the individual company terms become part of the contract. These conditions are usually divided as follows:
- General Conditions of Insurance for Residential Buildings (VGB)
- Clauses
- Special conditions for further natural hazards in residential building insurance (BEW or BBEW)
- individual agreements
According to EU competition law, every insurance company has been able to determine its own conditions since 1994. This makes it much more difficult to compare the individual offers.
The General Conditions of Home Insurance have been developed according to the following chronology:
- General Home Insurance Conditions 1962
- General Home Insurance Conditions 1988
- General Conditions of Home Insurance 2000
- General Conditions of Home Insurance 2008
Content of the insurance
The following definitions refer to the model terms and conditions for general residential building insurance of the German Insurance Association . The individual insurance companies are not bound by them. However, every company bases its contracts on this model.
Insured things
- The buildings named in the insurance policy (example: Musterstrasse 99, 99999 Musterhausen)
- Building accessories (example: bell and letterbox systems, garbage boxes and terraces)
- other building accessories, if expressly agreed (example: carports, greenhouses and garden houses, dog houses, courtyard and sidewalk fixings)
- Built-in furniture (built-in kitchens) that have been individually manufactured for a building
- Building accessories, insofar as they are located in the building or attached to the building and are used for maintenance or for residential purposes
Other building components and building accessories as well as water and sewage pipes outside the property are only insured on the basis of a special agreement.
Uninsured things
Items that are not insured are items added by the tenant at a later date and for which the tenant bears the risk, such as the tenant's awning.
The insurances in detail
The linked home insurance combines three types of insurance in one contract. The three insurances are fire, tap water and storm insurance (including hail). Each insurance can be taken out individually or in any combination. The individual insurance policies combine precisely defined dangers that threaten the building and the other insured items and should be insured by them.
| insurance | Insured risk | exact definition according to sample conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Fire insurance | fire | Fire is a fire that originated or without a proper stove
has left him and that is able to spread on its own. |
| lightning strike | Lightning strike is the impact of lightning on things. Short-circuit and overvoltage damage to electrical equipment that occurs as a result is insured. | |
| explosion | An explosion is a sudden expression of force caused by the expansion of gases or vapors. | |
| implosion | Implosion is the sudden destruction of a hollow body by external overpressure as a result of an internal negative pressure. | |
| Tap water server | tap water | Tap water is water that has leaked improperly from certain sources. |
| Frost and other breakage damage | There is no definition in the model conditions | |
| Storm insurance | Storm | Storm is a weather-related air movement of at least wind force 8 (wind speed at least 63 km / h). |
| hail | There is no definition of hail in the model terms. The risk of hail is insured regardless of the extent (e.g. grain size) without limitation. |
1. Fire insurance
In fire insurance , the residential building is insured against the following causes of damage:
- Fire,
- Lightning strike,
- Explosion,
- Implosion and
- Impact of an aircraft, its parts or its cargo.
Damage caused by fire is only insured if it is a fire that has led to an openly recognizable flame. Furthermore, fire damage to z. B. Fireplaces not insured if the fire has not left the fireplace.
- 7160 Overvoltage damage from lightning
- 7161 Fire damage from useful heat
- 7165 Vehicle impact
2. Tap water insurance
A distinction is made in tap water insurance:
2.1 Tap water damage
- 7166 rainwater pipes inside the building - clause
2.2 Frost and other breakage damage
- 7260 Extended insurance of water to mains and heating pipes on the insurance property that are not used to supply insured buildings or systems
- 7261 Extended insurance of water to mains and heating pipes outside the insurance property
- 7262 Advanced insuring From line pipes on the property insurance *
- 7263 Advanced insuring From line pipes outside the insurance property *
3. Storm insurance
Storm damage from wind movements from wind force 8 and hail damage are insured in storm insurance. In meteorology, wind movements are only referred to as storms from wind force 9. Evidence is provided by surrounding weather stations or indirectly by similar damage to buildings in the neighborhood. Hail damage is derived similarly. When a tree falls in a storm and z. B. falls on a car, then the insurance pays if the car is insured.
Insured costs
- Damage mitigation costs
- Clean-up and demolition costs, movement and protection costs
- Loss of rent
- 7362 decontamination costs
- 7360 Additional costs due to official restoration restrictions for residual values
- 7361 damage to buildings by unauthorized third parties
- 7363 Fallen tree removal expenses
- 7364 water loss
- 7365 expert costs
- In the event of disputes about the amount of the insurance benefit, an expert procedure can be initiated. This incurs costs for the own expert as well as for the mediating ombudsman. These costs will be reimbursed if the clause is included.
- 7366 graffiti damage
Calculation of premiums
- Sum insured in 1914
- Calculation of living space
Market situation in Germany
At the end of 2012, there were a total of 19.2 million residential building insurance contracts in Germany. The largest single residential building insurer in Germany was SV Gebäudeversicherung AG at the end of 2006 with a portfolio of 2.57 million policies.
The ten largest companies together manage almost 2/3 of the contracts (62% market share).
The following table shows the number of contracts as of December 31 of each year; in the source used, the figures for 2006 were only rounded to the nearest thousand.
| Top 2006 | Top 2004 | Companies | Contracts 2006 | Contracts 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | SV Building Insurance Ltd. | 2,570,000 | 2,825,714 |
| 2 | 3 | Bayerische Landesbrandversicherung AG | 2,564,000 | 2,627,607 |
| 3 | 1 | Allianz AG | 2,072,000 | 2,904,342 |
| 4th | 4th | Westfälische Provinzial Versicherung AG | 2,035,000 | 2,060,849 |
| 5 | 6th | R + V Allgemeine Versicherung AG | 744,000 | 638,668 |
| 6th | 5 | Provincial Rhineland Insurance AG | 638,000 | 672.272 |
| 7th | 7th | AXA Insurance AG | 543,000 | 539.123 |
| 8th | 10 | HUK-Coburg a. G. | 515,000 | 472.222 |
| 9 | 9 | Bayerischer Versicherungsverband Versicherung AG | 503,000 | 475.181 |
| 10 | 8th | VGH Landschaftliche Brandkasse Hannover AG | 488,000 | 492.764 |
| Total top 10 | 12,672,000 | 13,708,742 | ||
| Σ | total | 20,550,000 | 18,800,000 |
The high proportion of public insurance companies should be noted. They benefit from the sale in the context of construction financing by the market-leading savings banks and state building societies, both of which are also public institutions. The dominance of public law can easily be seen when looking at the corporate groups instead of the individual companies. Roughly speaking, every second contract is concluded with a public company. Here are the figures for 2004 by corporate group:
| Top | Group of companies | Contracts 2004 | Association membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Insurance Chamber of Bavaria | 3,273,186 | Savings Banks Finance Group |
| 2 | Allianz Group AG | 2,904,342 | - |
| 3 | SV Sparkassen-Versicherung Holding AG | 2,825,714 | Savings Banks Finance Group |
| 4th | Provinzial Nordwest Holding AG | 2,558,089 | Savings Banks Finance Group |
| 5 | R + V Allgemeine Versicherung AG | 638,668 | Cooperative. Financial association |
| Σ | Total top 5 | 12.199.999 |
Compulsory insurance
Since the floods in summer 2013 , compulsory residential building insurance with protection against natural hazards for homeowners has been under discussion. While the justice ministers of the federal states agree that compulsory insurance must come, the EU Parliament has now decided against a European obligation. In the coalition agreement of the Merkel III cabinet it was agreed that the introduction of compulsory insurance against natural hazards should at least be reviewed. August 2015: It is now clear that there will be no compulsory insurance.
See also
literature
- Horst Dietz, Sven Fischer, Christian Gierschek - Residential building insurance - Commentary, Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8629-8342-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ General terms and conditions of insurance for residential buildings (VGB 2010 - living space model) of the GDV . ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)
- ↑ Information of the General Association of German Insurers (GDV) for homeowners insurance ( Memento of the original September 21, 2013 Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Statistics from BaFin - primary insurance companies '06 (property and casualty insurance) (PDF; 20 MB), table 5643 (1).
- ↑ Federal government wants to examine compulsory insurance for homeowners , last accessed on February 26, 2014.
