Why do I need holiday insurance?

Insurance is a complex subject. We give you below what we have gleaned concerning the potential problems for UK residents taking a holiday in France, but this is only for guidance and is not intended to replace professional advice.
For those of other countries of residence, we strongly advise that you consult your insurance provider to see what applies for your country.

There are fundamental differences between the UK and French insurance systems as regards “personal liability”. Personal liability cover relates to incidents of damage or injury that you may cause to someone else. Every French resident has automatic and substantial personal liability cover from their house policy, even when on holiday. As we understand it, this is not necessarily the case for UK residents, hence the inclusion of personal liability cover in holiday insurance packages.

In France, in the event of damage or injury, the insurance company of the person having been subject to the damage or injury assumes that the person responsible for the accident has personal liability cover and so a claim will be made against the person responsible to cover the costs and any compensation.

Take these two examples:

1. Your child takes a sharp object into the swimming pool and rips the plastic liner of the pool. The pool has to be closed for repair. As the damage has been caused by a third party (who should be insured), the property owners’ insurance company make a claim against you for the cost of replacing the pool liner (£1800) and the reimbursements that the owners had to make for the next 2 weeks letting whilst the pool was out of action (£1200). In the absence of personal liability cover, this simple holiday accident would therefore cost you £3000.

2. You are walking down the street with an umbrella and one of the points blinds someone in one eye. This person needs excellent eyesight for his job and so his insurance company make a claim against you for the permanent disability (£500,000) plus loss of career (£800,000). In the absence of personal liability cover you might end up selling your house to pay the bill.

Obviously we need to ensure that adequate insurance protection is in place as regards damage that any of our holiday property owners may incur during the letting and that may not be covered directly by the owners’ own insurance (example 1 above). This loophole is not widely understood and therefore most private holiday property owners do not take it into account. However, the major holiday letting companies and tour operators all apply this requirement. The requirement for personal liability cover obviously extends to all members of your party, not just the person or family who made the reservation. To simplify things for the property owners, we collect the proof of adequate insurance cover and hold it on file on their behalf. Quite apart from looking after the interests of the owners, we also feel that it is necessary to point out the risks that you may run at any time that you are in France if you are not adequately covered (example 2 above).

In the past we have avoided promoting any particular holiday insurance provider on our web site to not be accused of “making a fuss just to sell insurance” but we get many requests to recommend a supplier so here is one suggestion below. Most holiday insurance policies contain personal liability cover - just make sure that a holiday property that you rent is not excluded from the cover. This can be a specific policy for the holiday, or an annual policy. It can be included in a banking or credit card package (check this cover carefully, as it may not be very comprehensive), or (rarely) it may included in home insurance.

 
One trip policy for family group of 2 adults and 2 children, around £19 (Nov 2008).

What documents do I need to provide ?

Whatever the insurance supplier, they should be able to provide a summary of the cover (despite some companies attempts to be as "occult" as possible - if you don't know what you're covered for you are less likely to make a claim).

The documentary evidence of the cover that you need to provide should include the following:

- The contact details, name, address, of the company providing the insurance

- The policy number

- The names of those covered by the policy, and/or the extent of family members that are covered by the policy

- An extract from the policy summary or terms which shows that personal liability cover is included

- You can delete any information that you consider to be of a private nature.

This should be provided for ALL members of the group who are to reside in the property.

Photocopies of the relevant pages can be sent by post to:
Accord Services, 10 rue de la Frise, 85320 Corpe, France.
(If you have a substantial booklet, just photocopy the relevant pages).

You can also send this by Fax to 0033 251 29 03 72, or you can scan the pages and send them by e-mail to our usual address.

If you have purchased holiday insurance on Internet, you can forward the details that you have received directly by e-mail to our usual address. Please ensure that these details do show the necessary information (and/or a link to the terms of the cover).

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