K&H: it’s really worth taking out holiday insurance now

In recent times, storms have devastated the entire country, including in holiday areas, such as the Balaton region. Extreme weather events have once again drawn attention to the need for adequate home insurance protection for holiday homes. K&H experts therefore call on holiday home owners to urgently review their insurance coverage.

Outdated insurance, outdated coverage

K&H experts warn: insurance policies taken out for holiday homes 10-15 years ago no longer provide sufficient protection. Due to significant changes in the construction industry, the new value of holiday homes has increased several times in the past decade, while insurance amounts, if not updated annually, have often remained unchanged.

“It is worth adjusting the existing insurance for the holiday home to the appropriate value. Many holiday home owners’ insurance is still for the insurance amount they took out years ago, while the reconstruction value of their holiday home can be up to 2-3 times that,” warns Székely Pálma, head of the sales and life insurance business of K&H Biztosító.

The serious consequences of underinsurance

The consequence of underinsurance is that when a loss event occurs, the insurer only compensates for the damages proportionally. This means that if the reconstruction value of the holiday home is 50 million forints, but the insurance amount is only 20 million forints, then in the event of a damage event, the owner will receive compensation in proportion to the insurance amount. In other words, the insurer can only compensate for a part of the damage incurred.

The damage caused by the storms has particularly highlighted this problem, as in many cases it turned out that the owners’ insurance protection was inadequate for the reconstruction costs.