Building cover

by Jeff
(Abruzzo)

Ciao Maria & Andrew,


Thanks for updating the site on building cover.

This advice is 100% spot on, and although it may alarm some, its better to know facts, than to live on hopes. Here in Abruzzo, many are going back, as the fears are too high of losing everything.

There are stories online about English insurers getting twitchy about the regular intervals of earthquakes in Europe, indeed our renewal notice from the UK is 2 weeks late, and no one seems to know whats going on. There are simply no guarantees any insurer will take on risk in a high risk area.

My advice is never listen to sales people, they are not the ones who deal with claims.
Try and ask the insurance office to to answer all questions you may have about your policy, i.e. what does it actually pay out after all deductions, and 'variables' etc, and use your own home value as an example. If they do not commit, the likelihood is, they might not pay out what you think (or would hope for).

The Italian market for insurance needs to get into the 21st Century, i.e. offer good cover, with reasonable rates to pay for properly assessed risk factors in all areas, and offer 100% transparency. Its getting better, but has a long way to go.

Your articles are good, please keep it up!

Best wishes to you both.

Andrew's reply: It is indeed a very sad situation - thank you for your advice on the latest regarding policies.

I have heard that insurers are using a map similar to the one on https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-probabilistic-seismic-hazard-map-for-Italy-1-showing-the-location-of-the_fig2_270463923. If you fall in the purple area you are basically uninsurable - don't know if that is true as I have only heard it from a friend.

Abruzzo is such a beautiful part of Italy and I can understand why people move there. If the risk is too high though why not rather move elsewhere in Italy rather than head back to the UK? There are some lovely and affordable regions of Italy where the risk is very low.

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