chris120

I recently bought a house in Rome using a mortgage. The mortgage company covers some aspects of house insurance to cover their investment and i have been looking into other household policies to make up the difference. It seems that it is not possible to get insurance to cover flood damage caused by "non direct" effects. i.e. there is cover for water damage due to burst pipes etc and also cover for damage by direct rainfall (i.e. rain blowing in though a window) but it seems that flooding due to rivers overflowing or road water run off is not given even if this is caused by excessive rainfall. Has any one found a company that covers this type of risk?

TestaRossa

You may find this is more to do with where your house is located. The same thing happens in the UK. If you buy in an area where there is a big risk of flooding or subsidence then no insurance company will cover it. Where the risk is lower, they will. Your other option might be to be prepared to pay a larger excess than normal on those specific incidences just to get some kind of cover. Are you that close to the Tiber then??

chris120

Testarossa, no this is not the case, I am not particularly exposed to flooding and, in any case, the flood exclusion is in the general terms and conditions ie they cover no-one for this risk. This exclusion is in the general Ts & Cs for ING, Genertel and Genialloyd all of whom are big insurance companies.

TestaRossa

Wow! Then, as usual, Italy is very different to the UK. We have contents insurance only with Sai (or sia I can never rememeber which way the letters go!) and my landlady has her builidings insurance with them - it's kind of a joint policy. I don't know if they will be any different, but this is a listed building - not sure what the actual term is here - so it is a specialised policy. Also there is Allianz who can be competitive. Sorry I can't be any more help.

duffer

We have CasaTua from Allianz-RAS. Might be worth giving them a shout, maybe?

chris120

Duffer, do they cover water damage due to "non direct" rainfall?
The wording to look for is as follows

Under the (approximate) heading of:-
Danni al fabbricato
La garanzia opera per i danni diretti e materiali al fabbricato assicurato causati da uno degli eventi seguenti:
A) Eventi base:
eventi atmosferici (azione diretta e immediata di pioggia, grandine, vento e cose da essi trascinate, quando la violenza che caratterizza tali
eventi sia riscontrabile su una pluralità di enti, assicurati o non);

and under the heading :-
Esclusioni di garanzie
inondazioni, allagamenti, alluvioni, esondazioni, penetrazione di acqua marina, mareggiate

duffer

You can find the general contract here -
http://www.allianzras.it/casa/Casa-T...ondizioni=true
I'll have a look at my actual contract later this week.

duffer

There are the general exclusions on page 14 of the above mentioned policy, specifically 4.3b6.
But there is also the optional protection for -
1. Eventi atmosferici
3. Bagnatura e allagamento
Let me know exactly what you need covered (ideally written in Italian) and I'll ask my neighbour who works for Allianz-Raz (hence why I'm with them!).

chris120

Duffer, A very quick scan through suggests to me that flooding is not covered by Alianz-RAS either but i stand to be corrected following a more detailed read through:-

b) Sono esclusi dall'assicurazione i danni verificatisi in relazione ai seguenti eventi:
b6) verificatisi in conseguenza di inondazioni, alluvioni, eccesso di marea (acqua alta), mareggiate e penetrazioni di acqua marina, variazione della falda freatica, cedimenti, smottamenti o franamenti del terreno, valanghe o slavine e spostamenti d'aria da questi provocati.

sono altresì esclusi dall'assicurazione i danni causati e/o derivati da:
c18) Guasti meccanici e/o anormale od improprio funzionamento;
c19) Bagnatura e/o allagamento;

casalottian

An italian friend whose son goes to the same school as my son, runs a car insurance company. He says that the reason that insurance is so high is that most people are dishonest. They get insurance after they crash their car/it gets stolen/they set it on fire.

Unfortunately I can believe him.

In the meantime, can anyone recommend any contents insurance policies that cover you from a previous burglary?

TestaRossa

Glad to see you have kept your sense of humour! In the Uk the scam is to add stuff on that wasn't stolen. We nearly had our insurance revoked after one too many storm damage claims for an old slate roof - trouble was they were all legit!! Did you know they will check the weather for the day you are claiming to make sure the winds, rain whatever, were bad enough to cause the damage you are claiming for??

chris120

Duffer I read through the Alianz-RAS Ts & Cs a bit more carefully and concluded that flooding (as i described it) is not covered.

Lorna at Vicenza

I wonder how the people in Venice get on.

duffer

They drown

Lorna at Vicenza

Misery guts.