Mr John Elms

by John Elms
(Omegna, Verbania, Italy )

Can you help please?

Do you know a U K insurer who will give cover for a permanent home in Italy. We moved from the UK recently to live in Italy.

Many thanks

John Elms

MioMyItaly's Answer:

I am not at financial expert and cannot give financial advice. However, you could try Clements Worldwide. I can't guarantee they can help but they are pretty experienced at insuring houses, cars and anything/everything else for foreigners living in Italy and for those foreigners owning property in Italy.

Can You Recommend a US Company to Insure our House in Italy

by Phillip Infelise
(Parker, COm USA)

The previous owners were Irish and they insured thru a UK Company. That company will not insure non WU residents. Can you recommend a US company that can help us. FYI - our home in CO is insured thru State Farm. Thank You.

Our reply:

We would love to help you. However and unfortunately, we cannot make recommendations of specific insurance companies in Italy or anywhere else as we not a registered financial service provider.

From what I've heard from others in the USA though, I believe it is difficult to get insurance from an American company for real estate in Italy.

Perhaps speak to State Farm first though as they are your current insurer and see what they can offer? They may be able to insure your house in Italy as an add on to your current insurance policy.

If they are unable to help then you may be best off insuring your home in Italy through an Italian insurance company. They are still expensive but they are a lot better than they were. Also, the process is a lot less complicated and more affordable than it was 10 or even 5 years ago.

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.

Cancelling home insurance in Italy

Can you also tell us how to cancel home insurance in Italy?

I have a home insurance policy with an Italian insurance company but now that I'm in the process of selling the place, I will cancel the policy.

The agent asks me for the deed of sale but that was never asked when I purchased the place. I do not have a mortgage in Italy on that place, so I should be able to just send them a letter cancelling the policy?

Handing over a deed of sale seem too inquisitive as it has many details in it that I feel highly uncomfortable sharing and are private (for ex, name of the buyer and sales amount). This information should not be needed for just simply cancelling the policy.

Would you please also include that kind of information on your website because that makes the information full circle?

Thank you!

Our Reply: Unfortunately we cannot give out personal advice on anything regarding finance or insurance. However; you should find the information you need on https://www.laleggepertutti.it/327579_come-disdire-assicurazione-casa. You can use Google to translate it to English if needed.

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