Are you renting your property on the Costa del Sol as a Holiday Rental offering to holidaymakers. If yes, do you have public liability insurance? If the answer to this is NO, then the following may well prove to be extremely beneficial considering the risks you are running and the fact that there are legislation changes governing private rentals on their way.
Is Your Holiday Home Covered by Public Liability Insurance?
Public liability Insurance has often been seen by owners to be a real minefield of red tape, high expenses and in general just too hard to do.
Owners who don’t have this insurance do currently leave themselves open to a lot of risk. We are all aware of the ‘where there is blame there is a claim’ culture that emanates around the world and people on their holidays can be no different. Have you asked yourself: “What would happen if someone was injured or worse whilst on holiday in my home?”
The Andalucian Government Are Set to Bring in New Regulations
There is also the likelihood of the Andalucian Government bringing in regulations to govern the private holiday home industry. This legislations main goal is to collect more tax from those who rent their home. We have, however, seen in the Balearics, Canary Islands and other parts of mainland Spain that there are accompanying caveats to the legislation including being properly insured to force owners to take a more caring and professional view of how they conduct their business.
So is obtaining Public Liability as difficult and as costly as you would first think. The pleasing answer to all this is no. It is in fact reasonably straight forward, especially if you use the right broker.
There is no real magic to insuring your home and covering yourself for public liability. You have a simple choice of either buildings only, contents only or buildings and contents insurance policies. Public liability cover would automatically be included in any of the three mentioned. Naturally a buildings and contents policy would be the most inclusive but if you are reluctant to have to pay for insurance then you can take a small contents policy which would be in the region of 100/120 euros per annum (Cost can be affected by the size of the property and how much is required for contents insurance). This would still automatically give you the cover you need for public liability. This option would certainly be cheaper than contracting a public liability only policy and you get the contents cover as well.
You do of course have to make sure that the policy provider is aware that the property is being rented and that this is included on the policy, this is imperative.
So if someone has an accident in your holiday home and makes a claim then public liability part of the policy would cover it providing that the policy has been set up correctly and has been declared as rented in the policy. If it is not declared as rented then there will be problems.
One extra factor for those of you concerned about appearing on the Governments radar is that the insurance information is in no way shared with any other authority but the insurers have to know if it is a rental property as it is considered a higher risk and therefore the premium will be a little higher.
In terms of Health and Safety conformity to qualify for a policy with Public Liability you will be pleased to hear yet again that there are no health and safety requirements to adhere to in terms of ensuring that the policies are going to be valid but the policies themselves must be active and set up correctly.
If you are asking the question will I be covered should the worst happen to a guest then as long as the policy is set up correctly you will be covered for accidents and death up to the limit on the policy. A guide on the usual limit is around 300,000 Euros but you can increase this amount by paying extra and insure yourself up to 600,000 Euros. Awards in the case of a claim in Spain are a lot less than in the UK but clients could potentially bring a claim from the UK so if you are arranging the policy we recommend you include the higher amount.
The need for a competent and reliable broker was mentioned earlier in the article, so who can you trust for advice and will deliver good honest cover.
Panoramic Villas have been working with an insurance company in Coin on the Costa del Sol, in particular a lady by the name of Rebecca Bell.
Rebecca has prepared ¨Public liability insurance packages¨ for several of our owners and at very reasonable prices, perhaps a good deal cheaper than you might imagine.
Should your clients be injured you are covered and in all probability ticking another box required by law and you can sleep a little more soundly.
Contact Rebecca Bell directly becky@theinsurancecentre.net or Tel 0034 677 13 95 58.
The Insurance Centre, Plaza Principe de España s/n, 29100, Coín, Malaga.
