Yes, in insurance jargon, fire insurance is also known as home insurance as it includes far more than simple fire cover.

Indeed, it protects your home for damage caused by fire but also for that caused by other phenomena such as storms, water, and natural disasters to name but a few. Furthermore, home insurance covers damage caused to other people (third parties), such as neighbours and/or their home, for which you are held responsible. Let's take the example of a fire that starts in your home and spreads to the neighbouring home. If you have home insurance, you will not have to pay out of your own pocket for the damage because your insurance will cover it and compensate your neighbours. You can also choose to cover your content and insure against theft and vandalism.

For tenants, the term tenants’ liability is very often used. This term actually refers to the tenant's home or fire insurance. It protects the property that the tenant occupies against damage that they may cause and for which they are held responsible. It also covers damage that the tenant may cause to third parties such as neighbours and/or their homes. The tenant also has the possibility to cover their content and insure against theft. For further information on tenants’ home insurance, please visit the following page: The fire insurance designed for tenants

In Belgium, homeowners are not required by law to take out home insurance.

However, many homeowners are required to take out home insurance as part of a mortgage loan. This is because if you take out a mortgage, the bank usually requires you to take out home insurance to cover the home for which the loan is contracted.

Also, if you own a home in Flanders that you rent out with a rental lease that came into effect after 31 December 2018, you and the tenant must take out home insurance to protect the home.

However, even if you are not obliged to take out home insurance, it is strongly recommended to avoid paying out of your own pocket for damage to your own or neighbouring properties caused by fire, smoke, or water, for example.

In addition, with home insurance, you also have the possibility of taking out optional content insurance to protect your furniture and personal belongings. If you choose to cover your content, you can also choose cover against theft and vandalism.

Firstly, if you own a property that you are planning to let, take the following elements into consideration:  

As a reminder, as a property owner, you are not legally obliged to take out home insurance except de facto in the context of a mortgage. Nevertheless, we strongly advise you to protect your property with a home insurance policy, even if your tenant has their own home insurance, i.e., tenants’ liability insurance.

This is because both the landlord's home insurance and the tenant's home insurance insure different risks with a different value. Let us explain.
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Homeowners’ insurance protects your building against various risks and your liability towards third parties. The tenant's home insurance only covers their liability for damage they may have caused to your home or to third parties such as neighbours through their 'fault'.
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This means that the tenant will have to pay if the damage is a direct result of their actions. This is not always the case, however. Imagine that a tree falls on your property following a storm, or flooding damages your building, or lighting causes a fire in your building. As these are not the tenant’s fault, you will need to pay to repair the damage. However, if you have home insurance, the insurance will cover the repair costs and you will not need to pay from your own pocket.
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Furthermore, as the owner, it is in your own interest to insure your building for its ‘replacement value’ (or reconstruction value) as, in the case of a claim, your goal will be to repair your property or rebuild it. The tenant, on the other hand, who is obliged to return the property in its original state is likely to take out home insurance for the ‘real value’ (taking wear and tear of the building into account). Having your own owner’s fire policy will compensate this loss in value.

If you are the owner of a building with several owners, such as a flat in a block of flats, the building is very often insured via the co-ownership or the building's administrator. Therefore, if you occupy your flat, you only need to insure the content of your apartment and any improvements you have made to it.

You should always check the value that is covered for your flat in your co-ownership insurance to make sure that the compensation will be sufficient to cover your loss in the event of a claim. Could you get your property back in an identical condition with this value? If you have made improvements to your flat (e.g., kitchen or bathroom renovations, more luxurious finishes), these may not be covered by the co-ownership insurance. You can therefore insure these improvements by taking out the "property improvements" option to cover the work you have carried out and avoid being underinsured.

If you rent out your property, we strongly recommend that you insist your tenant take out tenants' liability insurance, i.e., home insurance for the tenant, to cover any damage they may cause to your dwelling or the co-owned property.

With our Home Protect product, we only offer cover for homes used as the main residence with regular occupancy (whether occupied by you or a tenant/occupier), i.e., a home that has not been unoccupied for more than 120 nights in the 12 months prior to a claim. A night is considered to be from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

We therefore do not cover secondary residences.

Are you staying somewhere else temporarily, for your holidays, for example? Is the building you are occupying and renting for a maximum of 120 days per insurance year either a house, a flat, a hotel room, a tent, or a residential caravan? If you cause damage through fire, explosion, or smoke in the building where you are staying, then we pay for such damage.

If there is damage other than smoke or fire damage and you stay in the building for less than 90 consecutive days, we will also pay for this damage.

Beware, have you only insured your content? Then only damage to the damaged content will be covered.

Please note that you cannot be the owner of the holiday home and we do not cover damage to mobile homes.

What is a deductible?
Deductible is the amount that you will have to pay in the event of a claim.
In other words:

How much is the deductible?
The deductible fluctuates every month in line with the consumer price index (CPI).
In January 2021, the standard deductible was €266.10 (at the consumer price index of 256.85). The reference is a basic deductible of €123.95 at the 1981 CPI of 119.64.
The deductible does not apply to assistance or replacement of locks following the loss or theft of your keys.

First of all, as the owner, your building is insured for its replacement value.

What is the replacement value of my building?
The replacement value of your building is the price you would pay to rebuild an identical building with the same materials on the day of the incident.

How is this value, and therefore the amount to be insured for your building, determined?
Our appraisal system will help you estimate the replacement value of your building.
Don’t worry, thanks to our appraisal system, based on the number of rooms and the postcode of your home, even if the estimated value of the building is lower or higher than the actual replacement value, we will still compensate the full amount of the damage within the limit of the actual replacement value of the building, after deduction any applicable excess.
It is important to use this system correctly to avoid a lower level of compensation.

If you have chosen to insure your content, you must also insure this for their replacement value, with the exception of some items that you must insure for their actual or replacement value, such as clothing, vehicles without engines, watches, etc.

What is the replacement value of my content? 
For furniture, the replacement value is the price you pay to replace the furniture with objects made of the same materials on the day of the incident.

How is this value, and therefore the amount to be insured for your building, determined? 
‍If you have taken out ‘Furniture’ cover for your content in addition to the insured building, the minimum amount to be insured for your content is 25% of the amount insured for your building. The amount to be insured for the content may not exceed 150,000 euros.

If you insure only your content, it must be covered for a minimum of 44,536.23 euros. This amount of 44,536.23 euros is determined with the ABEX 878* and corresponds to a majority of cases, taking into account all your belongings in your home: furniture, electrical appliances, decoration, textiles, bedding, different equipment, crockery, etc.
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* What is the ABEX? The ABEX is an index that represents changes in the price of construction. All ‘Fire’ contracts are subject to this index. It changes twice a year. For more information on the ABEX and its evolution, please see: https://www.abex.be/fr/indice-abex/

Home Protect insurance is :

Would you like to change your policy by adjusting the amounts of cover or adding an option?
Your contract can be adapted to meet your needs. Simply send an e-mail to our team at contact@qover.be, and we will take care of it.

How can I check if my tariffs or the conditions of my contract have changed?
‍The company is required to give notice of this on your payment statement, giving you the option of cancelling if you do not accept a change in price or conditions. To cancel, you should follow the same principle as above. If there have been no changes to your tariff or conditions, you will need to wait until the next annual renewal date to be able to cancel your contract.

A home insurance contract is valid for one year and is automatically renewed at the end of that year. In order to terminate the contract before the one-year period, it is necessary to prove that the risk no longer exists and that you no longer have a home to cover as the owner.