French Tenants Liability Insurance

Moggo

I have just booked an apartment in Paris (via Booking.com) and have been contacted by the property owners who advised that I need the mandatory (under French law) tenant's liability insurance covering damage caused by fire, an explosion or water @ 3.5% of cost of apartment. I have booked the apartment for one week only so the premium cost for this insurance will be £22.
I have comprehensive travel insurance and have contacted my provider who confirmed that this is not covered and they have never come across this before.
Has anybody else? and have they paid it?

eddddy

Booking.com is governed by Dutch Law - but I guess Dutch Law is similar to UK law, so...

If the property owner (or booking.com) didn't tell you about the insurance charge before you booked, you don't have to pay it - you can ask for all your money back instead.

In theory, you might be able to claim consequential losses as well - but you might have to read-up on Dutch law before attempting that.


Realistically, you have no way of forcing them to provide the apartment without the extra payment (unless they voluntarily agree). But if Booking.com allows you to write a review of the apartment, I guess you could vent your anger that way.

huckster

Out of interest, i looked into this.

It is a standard requirement if you rent property in France to have personal liability insurance. Why Booking.com does not mention it, you would have to ask them. They might say it is not directly related to the booking and is separate like arranging Travel Insurance.

Travel Insurance does normally include Personal Liability Insurance and you would have to read policies to see whether they exclude damage to properties you rented. I am not sure that they would exclude it. It might be labelled as tenants liability by the property renters, but i suspect that they are offering you a specific Insurance, whereas your standard Travel Insurance may cover the same under a general policy wording.

See this from Trip Advisor.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g196531-i6414-k3508298-Assurance_villegiature-Quiberon_Morbihan_Brittany.html