While the price of home insurance has increased, some coverage is no longer the same.
This is part of the almost obligatory expenditure for all French people. Unless you want to not be protected and pay for any loss out of your own pocket, no one can escape home insurance. No criminal sanction is provided if a tenant or owner has not subscribed to it, but it is still very strongly recommended to have one. However, this weighs on household budgets, especially since in 2024, an increase of 5 to 6% is, on average, applied compared to the 2023 tariff.
Problem, the cover is no longer quite the same. Discreetly, at least two guarantees provided for in your contract have been revised without clearly informing you and cover you, a priori, less well. When renewing the contract, insurers simply send an e-mail with the bill to be paid, without specifying the changes that have occurred compared to the previous year. However, reading the document before sending the check sometimes reserves surprises…
Almost all home insurance contracts thus provide for the insurer to cover costs that could be incurred in the context of legal information, drafting of real estate contracts (rental leases, sales agreements, etc.). ) or various disputes concerning your accommodation. This is the “Legal Protection” guarantee. Furthermore, a “Recourse” guarantee exists to exercise any recourse, amicable or legal, in order to obtain financial compensation in the event of damage suffered.
However, these two guarantees are only triggered based on a certain amount. If the appeals or disputes do not allow the insured to collect more than certain sums, then the procedure is entirely at his expense. This could be, for example, €500 for legal protection and €600 for appeals.
However, these amounts increase from year to year in line with the evolution of the FFB (French Building Federation) index. Thus, between 2023 and 2024, the support thresholds increased by 0.95%. That is only 5 euros more, of course, but, between 2022 and 2023, they had increased by more than 8%, or around 40 euros more per threshold. From now on, for example, the intervention of legal protection must allow the insured to receive more than 550 euros for it to be triggered. Below this level, it is he who will have to pay for the procedure.
A subtlety which is not clearly explained by insurance companies, even if these increases may not have an impact taking into account inflation. With the rise in the price of materials, the sums at stake during disputes are most often mechanically higher than last year. You still need to know this and keep in mind this little subtlety about your contract…