Home insurance in Calabria

[Real Estate Calabria]

Do you want to ensure your new home purchased in Calabria, but no one speaks English?

I am available, please contact me via e-mail: agenziacasabella@libero.it or phone +393476925670. I am Dr. Ivan De Luca working with the Insurance Company Fondiaria-Sai in Scalea ( Via Lauro n. 159 ) .

[Linda Harrower]

I will try and come over in June with Patrizzia Cruttwell she bought an apartment from you i am looking for something.

[ht54]

We used Intasure in England for our insurance as they do not require you to visit your property every 30 days. They responded quickly to our request etc.

You may find it useful for comparison price-wise !

[Marilyn]

For insuring cars try online, websites are in English also, Direct line operate in Italy and something online has to be cheaper than some of the insurance agents around in towns! for house insurance you can get quotes from back in the Uk and online,they will insure a holiday home, but are not cheap! It does pay to shop around where ever you are ( this info is coming from a former financical advisor and insurance sales person) We found insuring our Italian car here the price varied from one agent to another in the same town.:???:

[Italy4me]

We use Italsure for our car insurance as the price was half of that quoted by Italian insurers for fully comprehensive insurance.

Italsure - Expatriate Insurance Solutions

And for house insurance we use Andrew Copeland

Landlord Insurance, Buy To Let Insurance, Car Insurance, Property Insurance, Landlords Building Insurance

We have needed to make claims on both (unfortunately) and the claims were dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Marilyn, do you have a recommendation for your specialist B&B insurance as I know someone who may need it soon?

Regards, Lesley

[Doug]

Message to any Americans thinking of insurance here -- Italsure and Intasure, both in London, will not insure the homes of American citizens abroad. Italsure DOES cover our car policy here - just not American homes. Copeland gave me a quote of 895 GBP (about $1250) including earthquake coverage. Our friends in Scalea found a local company that actually offers earthquake coverage and their policy in old Scalea is much less. I'll check back in with any further news. It's not all that much worse than in the US. Our home policy was about $800 and to add earthquake coverage there would have cost an additional $700!!! The earthquake threat is much higher here than Oregon, USA.

[Rob Bufford]

Doug - Please let us know if you find a reputable company that offers second home insurance to Americans. Thanks.

[Doug]

Rob ,
I have held-off looking into the cheaper Italian policy that Ralph and Mayi have here because they said we have to have our proof of residency. Yet again, without our residence card, we go nowhere! We have our Permesso di Soggiorno (permit to stay ala American Green Card) from Cosenza, but we have yet to get a resident ID card from the comune which is also needed to get health insurance and so many things. One thing leads to another and it's a big circle too in that the permesso we worked so hard for has to be re-applied for this winter. At least each year, the term of the permesso gets longer.

Anyway, If this is all true, then an American with a holiday property here would not be eligible for the Italian insurance and you'd have to look into the more expensive policy with Copeland. Our comune has our residency applications and we hope to hear from them as soon as the Agosto holiday ends next week. They have yet to ask for photographs which are needed to produce the cards.

At the beginning of this string you see the name Ivan De Luca in Scalea. He's nice and we had a policy thru him last year, but it didn't have the earthquake coverage we want more than anything else. If you're not worried about quakes, then he can write an affordable general policy for you. Sorry we don't remember what we paid.

I'll let you know more as we learn. DJ

[Real Estate Calabria]

Currently in Italy there is a serious lack legislation: all Italian companies do not provide earthquake risk, since in these cases there is partial support by the Italian government in the event of reconstruction. Therefore at present there are no possibilities to cover this catastrophic event.
Ivan De Luca

Fondiaria-Sai Assicurazioni
www.fondiaria-sai.it

[uakelly]

We have our insurance with them including earthquake cover, which we felt was essential. They have been only approx £240 for the past three years so it is difficult to understand why they charge Americans so much.

[Doug]

Non lo so, sgr.kelly. Our American friend said the other place that insured him for "peanuts" asks for your residency ID which we won't have until maybe next week. Once we have that additional piece of plastic, we'll go look further. I'm now nervous since Ralph says he got insured by an Italian office, but Ivan is still saying the earthquake coverage is not available. In a pinch we'll go with Copeland to start, to cover ourselves, and continue the search.

It's amazing what an EU citizen can get here that we cannot. I should push that I'm 10th generation 'former European' and should be eligible for discounts on wine or something if not insurance.

[dmbt54]

I have used Holiday Home Insurance & Second Home Insurance - Intasure

There is also Italsure - Expatriate Insurance Solutions

.... it didn't seem difficult - OK, I am EU... but they didn't seem bothered!

[Doug]

Okay,

Americans can get home insurance thru the UK firm of Copeland. Our quote was about 1200 Quid. I met a nice man at Aurora Insurance in Scalea who better explained the situation on earthquake insurance. Because most people in Italy live in and own homes attached to others in old sections and newer apartment buildings, sorting out the mess after a serious earthquake would be a real hassle, so Italian companies do not write policies for earthquakes and rely on the government to help everyone. What this outfit WILL do is cover 50% of your replacement costs and (for a price) give you up to €20.000 for a lawyer to help you work with the government. He said that now that we are residents, we would receive government aid. Not so sure about holiday home owners.

Anyway, we are opting for the Italian firm which is €500 per year for both our apartments totaling 130 MSQ. I got to thinking that if something that bad happened, there's a chance we'd be killed and not able to file a claim anyway, so may as well go for the cheaper policy!!

Ciao,

[uakelly]

It obviously is easier/ cheaper for EU residents than Americans. Ours not to reason why!!! Out of interest I remember watching one of those holiday programmes where a lady was looking for a property in Calabria. She was relocating from Umbria where her property had been damaged by the earthquake there. She had claimed from her insurance, etc etc with no problems and then heard from the Italian Gov who were also compensating her. I found this really fascinating. I wish I could remember the programme.

[Doug]

I returned to get the policy Monday and was told that they don't actually do the 50% teremotto coverage. They Do have €10.000 for legal fees to deal with the government if you get crushed. We'll try it for a year. Ivan had a cheaper policy but I'm certain it had the legal fee clause. I guess if we get paranoid, we can spend another €300 and go with Copeland in England. Hard to imagine negotiating help with Brits if things go south in Italy. Insurance is one of those awful things. We've never made a claim for home or auto, but keep paying over the years. Regards

[First Norwegian]

Concerning insurance;
have just got insurance quotations from both Copeland and Intasure.

I have a holidayhouse in Centro Storico - Scalea, 100 sq.m. 3 double bedrooms.

Both quotations covers all the standard events, and also earthquake.

Copeland:

Rebuilding costs: £ 200.000
Content: £ 20.000
Public liability £ 3.000.000

Excesses:
Standard policy excess: £ 100
Earthquake excess: £ 1000

Quotation price: £ 570 pr. year


Intasure:

Rebuilding costs: Up to £ 1.000.000 (standard minimum/automatic coverage)

Content: £ 20.000
Public liability £ 5.000.000

Excesses:
Standard policy excess: £ 150
Earthquake excess: £ 5000

Intasure quotation price: £ 369 pr. year


Tom Markus

[june]

Hi Tom

We went with Intasure as we thought it was the least expensive for Holiday Home Insurance with earthquake cover. Unfortunately we could not get subsidence cover anywhere and as we live on the edge of the valley we are worried we will end up in it some day !!!!!!

Our Policy is more or less the same as yours but we have only 5000 euro contents cover
and our Total premium per year is 185.37 euro.

I am assuming you finally moved in and all is well.

Maybe see you next year

June & Dermot

[First Norwegian]

Hi June

Thats right, Intasure dont cover damages caused by subsidence or landslip, thats stated in their policy wording, but my consideration is that I dont need this coverage as my house is located on the solid rocks of Centro Storico and even quite far from the edge/cliffs to the valley.

In Copelands quotation, subsidence, landslip and heave is covered and included. Insurence sum for this is up to £200,000, the excess £2,500

My house is almost finished now, the completion date is 30 september. Today I got Tonys confirm that my house will be finished and ready when I arrive Scalea 8. october. This trip I planned according to the completion date in my contract, for the "take over" of the house and to furnish it.

I have to get the house furnished and ready during this october visit because me and family have already booked tickets for christmas in Scalea and everything have to be ready for the christmas holiday.

See you

Tom Markus