A comprehensive range of insurance is available in Turkey to protect your holiday home and possessions from a wide variety of risks. Our guide will run through what you need to do to make sure you are covered.
It’s easy to think that bad things happen to other people and not ourselves, but the facts suggest that isn’t a risk we can afford to take.
In Turkey the risks to property are much higher than the UK in some ways with the added risks of earthquakes, landslides, forest fires and flooding insuring your property and contents makes sense.
The Turkish government takes the earthquake threat very seriously following major earthquakes in the past that almost crippled Turkey’s economy and it requires all home owners to take out a compulsory basic insurance against the risk of earthquake damage.
But you’d be surprised how many homeowners in Turkey don’t insure themselves leaving fate to deal its hand.
Our guide will run through what you need to do to make sure you are covered and also suggest some places to look for quotes.
In our first article we run through the types of insurance and the preparations you will need to make before hitting the streets or the internet to find a suitable insurance policy.You can also contact the Foreign Citizens Advice Centre in Kusadasi on (0256) 6123207 or call in to their offices anytime where they will be happy to assist you.
Types of Property Insurance
There are three main categories:
1. Buildings
2. Contents
3. DASK – Compulsory insurance required by the Turkish Government, more on that later.
Determine What You Want Insured and the Values
First up, you need to gather some basic information and have a think about what you want to insure and what you don’t. This will be important when you start the shop around for quotes later.
You’ll also need to work out the value of your property for some insurers. This value isn’t the market value but the cost of rebuilding, an important distinction to make. Even if you do insure using the market value the insurance company will only pay out to rebuild or the reinstatement cost so don’t waste your money over valuing.
So how do you work out the rebuild value?
First up work out the area of your property in square metres. A figure may be on your living permission document or deeds but check it again as these figures are generally ‘massaged’ for tax reasons. Next ask an architect or an insurance company for a cost per metre to re build your property. Take the area, times it by the rebuild per metre, and you have the value to insure.
Contents
Next up, think about the value of your contents:
- Indoor Furniture: beds, cabinets, tables chairs and the kitchen
- Electrical items. Make a list and separately identify the expensive items like TV’s, video cameras etc.
- Curtains and soft furnishings: Bedding, clothing etc
- Outdoor furniture: Patio furniture, sun beds
Then if you want other items covered such as:
- Passports, Credit cards
- Cash
- Mobile phones
- Freezer cover due to breakdown or power cut
- Bikes
- Lost keys/Locks
- Accidental DamageDamage by tenants
And don’t forget about public liability insurance, the cover required if someone on your property is injured or killed due to negligence or force of nature. Most policies will offer a fixed sum of cover but check the limits.
And finally, the excess you are prepared to pay. This is the amount that you must pay for each and every claim.
