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We will regularly post relevant insurance news, important information which may affect your policies or claims and any other thoughts we think you may find useful..

We were recently able to help a Generali customer (of another broker) after reading her post on the Total France forum.

As she was kind enough to say: “a good agent makes all the difference”!

When your stove or heating system was fitted, the equipment was adjusted to the draught of your chimney. If your chimney gets filled up with soot, the quality of draught changes, but the parameters of your installation don’t.

As a result, you will have a higher consumption of energy and it will cost you more to heat your house to the same level.

Another problem could be that you get poisoned by breathing carbon monoxide that stays in the house instead of being released through the chimney. In France, about 300 people die each year, and 4000 have breathing disorders due to carbon monoxide, all the more dangerous as you cannot smell it.

When you decide to have your chimney swept, beware of hawkers – make sure the work is done by a professional who has liability insurance, which covers him in case of defect. He should give you an ‘attestation’ that the chimney has been swept along its entire length.

Some shops sell a chemical brick which you can burn in the fireplace and which is supposed to clean your chimney, but this product corrodes the inside of the pipe and could do more harm than good. Cleaning has to be done by scratching inside the pipe with a hard brush adapted to the width.

Who pays? If you are the owner of an individual house, you pay, along with other maintenance costs. If you lease to somebody, make sure the cleaning has been done by the tenant before he leaves.

If you are an owner or tenant in a block of flats, these costs are included in the costs you pay to the “syndic de copropriété”/property agent.

If you rent an individual house, you should bear the cost of cleaning as other maintenance costs.

In a word, when you have the use of the place, you have to pay for chimney sweeping.

You may have heard that there is a legal obligation to have your chimney swept. In fact, there used to be a law regulating chimney sweeping, with a fine in case of breach, but it was abolished in 1994.

But… you could be personally liable if anyone is hurt due to a fire caused by a dirty chimney.

As regards insurance, each company has its own rules, so you should read the general terms, “Fire” chapter, and see if chimney sweeping is mentioned. It can also appear in the chapter “Your duties”.

If you have any questions or want to know more about it, you can call us and we will help you out (there is no obligation, just friendly help).

Any educational establishment, school or university will ask for an attestation proving that the student is covered for liability insurance.

What does it cover?

The financial consequences of bodily injury, material or immaterial damage caused to third parties, for which you are legally liable in your capacity as a private individual, i.e. outside the context of your business or professional life.

In particular: the school-related or extracurricular activities of your children.

In the course of the following cases: in case of damage done to property entrusted by the school where your child is enrolled, or in connection with vocational training offered by the school where your child is enrolled.

Territorial scope of coverage: in France and Monaco. Worldwide in the event of a trip or short-term stay of less than three months (your children studying abroad are covered throughout the length of their educational stay).

Now be careful, every insurance company has its own rules and small prints (see our article “Chasing the best insurance premium” published in March 2006.) Some companies include this cover in the house insurance policy, as they consider this is part of the global liability cover ; others won’t, and you’ll have to ask for it as an option. The text above refers to the cover offered by Generali Assurances with the house insurance policy.

In France, schools usually recommend school insurance with M.A.E.. You can then choose between various levels of cover : either civil liability only, or other extra options such as broken glasses, funeral costs, dental costs.

But please keep in mind that the only compulsory cover required is the civil liability cover, and before you take out any school insurance cover, make sure you don’t have this already with your house policy.

If you wish a higher level of cover, I am sure that your insurer will be able to help you out for a better price than a separate policy.

Conclusion: most of you who have a house policy do already have the compulsory school liability cover, just call your insurer and ask him for an attestation. Or contact us.

The no-claims bonus does exist in every country of the European community ! There is just one little problem… each country has its own way of adapting a calculation, and when you go from one country to another, you can get confused.

We know that in the UK you need four years of car insurance without any accident to obtain a bonus rate between 60 and 65 %. Even if you are insured for a longer time, the rate will not increase. This no-claims bonus will be reduced to zero if you have a responsible accident, and you will need four more years to come back to 60%. Unless… you have paid a little more to protect your bonus.

As usual in France it’s different ! Someone who has never been insured starts with a bonus level of 1.00. With each year without any responsible accident, this figure is multiplied by 0.95. This is why you need 13 years with no responsible accident before you can reach the maximum no-claims bonus rate, which is 50% in France.

The positive side of this system is that when you have a responsible accident, the bonus rate you have gained will be multiplied with a coefficient of 1.25 if you are at fault for 100%, or 1.125 if you only have 50% fault. This means that the first responsible claim does not make you lose completely your bonus like in the UK.

In France, the bonus cannot be protected. But…if you have had the maximum no-claims bonus rate (50%) for more than 3 years, some companies will not reduce your no-claims bonus with the first responsible accident.

A few explanations about the way a French insurer transfers the UK bonus into a French one

When you arrive in France with your British no-claims bonus which shows for instance 6 years of clear driving, then he will multiply 1.00 six times with the coefficient of 0.95, which gives a result of 0.72. This means that you have a reduction of 28% and that you will need 7 years more of clear driving to reach the maximum bonus rate in France.

Not fair! … I hear you scream and even more if you know that you have many more years than the 13 required in France. For an British insurer, there is no reason to put more than four years on the certificate, but when you come into the French system you need these years, which British insurers cannot provide because the system is different.

If this is your case, then you have a good reason to call us, as we have a special agreement with our company. But you should not have been insured in France for more than 2 years, and if you have just arrived and you’re looking for your first French insurance policy, then it’s easier to transfer your UK bonus into the maximum French bonus, even if your certificate only shows 3 or 4 years of insurance. Of course the premium in the end is totally different!

* Glass damage, theft, vandalism and fire are not responsible accidents.

In this article we will try to explain why insurance premiums can vary so much for what we would think the same type of policy.

In the United Kingdom, you can make your choice between three different types of policies, whatever the insurance company. The level of excess will of course impact the premium.

You may find out that premiums also vary according to the service-level offered by the insurance company (when you call the ‘hot line’, you may talk to a person in India, who won’t have the answer to your question at once).

If you want the road assistance cover (green flag or RAC), you need to take out a separate policy at a rather expensive rate.

As the covers are the same for all insurance companies, you can indeed chase the best price.

In France on the contrary, insurance policies change according to the insurance companies, who have devised their policies in such a way that they always add options that their competitors don’t have, or use a different presentation.

In most cases, you can add the breakdown cover to your car policy, but be careful as there are different levels of quality there too.

If you find a difference in premiums between two insurance companies, you will always find, when you look into the general terms, that there is a cover that is different. This is why, for a specific car and with roughly the same type of cover, you can get a fairly low premium with a company, and a much higher one with another, as covers have different extents and modes of application if the insurance company chooses to add options to the minimum cover defined by law.

To find out the differences, you have to take the general terms of each company in which you are interested, and carefully compare each cover.

Some examples:

General cover: can you make your choice between various covers, do you have to take a package, can you choose (for instance, you may wish not to take the theft cover in France on a right hand driven car ?)

Do you have an excess for fire, theft and damages, or only for damages, or none ?

Glass breakage: your headlights, windscreen, rear and side windows are always covered… But what about rearlights and side mirrors ?

Assistance cover: if the car breaks down you get a rental car, and for how long ? If you have an accident will you get a replacement car for a longer time ? In case of theft, will you get a rental car for 30 days ? Will you get assistance only if your car breaks down more than 50 kms far from your home ?

In case of accident within one year after purchasing a brand-new car, if the car is a total loss, will you get enough compensation to buy the same new car, or only a second-hand one ?

Theft cover: if you leave your keys in the car because you only need 10 secs to get to the news agency, and someone steals your car in the meantime, will you get 50 % compensation, or none at all ?

Fire cover: if electrical wires melt due to a short circuit, and the car doesn’t take fire, are you covered, for how much and up to which age of the car ?

We can make a very long list of questions you should look into, and you will end up feeling sick and wanting to get rid of the file !

If you take out your policy today, and take it really cheap, feeling you’ve made a good bargain… and later you have to make a claim, you may realize the claim is not covered, or only partly, and you get monkey money for it. It will be too late, and you’ll be angry to have paid such a good price to start with.

Our advice would be : don’t chase prices in France, you’ll get for what you pay, don’t create more problems than the stress you’ll have anyway in case of claim.

Make sure you understand exactly what you are insured for. Trust, if ill placed, can cost you a lot !

This is why we have decided to provide you with the general conditions of your French policy in English, to offer a good quality, reliable insurance cover.

If it’s not easy to read the small print in English, imagine what it must be in French? If you have any difficulty finding your way in the small print and various options, please call us, and we’ll be happy to guide you without any obligation.

Driving licence rules can be different according to the various countries in Europe. In this article, we will only talk about driving licences for cars, which require a category B driving licence.

In the United Kingdom

You are entitled to have a driving licence as from 17 for cars and motorcycles, 18 for medium-sized vehicles, and 21 for large lorries and busses.

Your licence is valid up to the expiry date which is printed on the licence, below the date and place of birth.

When you turn 70, you will have to ask for the renewal of your licence, which will be renewed for a period of three years.

Visitors who come from other European countries, as well as Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway, and hold a valid Community licence can drive any vehicle during the period of validity of their licence. The appropriate full entitlement for the vehicle you wish to drive must be printed on the licence.

As long the driving licence does not show an expiry date, it is valid in the UK s it is in the country of origin, as it is regulated under the law of the country of origin, and not under the British law.

And what if you are 70 years or more ?

If you drive around in the UK with a non-English driving licence, and the country which regulates your driving licence does not apply an age limit, then your licence will be valid in the UK, without discussion.

In France

You are entitled to have a driving licence for cars under 3.5 tons and motorbikes up to 125 cc from of the age of 18 ; you only need to be 21 if you want the licence for busses, and all the other licences can be obtained at 18 if beforehand you have your car driving licence.

Your category B driving licence is valid for ever. There is no expiry date for reason of age. The French government has launched a discussion about introducing an expiry date according to the age of the driver, but “Automobile Club de France“, a very large lobby, showed up, the government backed up on the spot.

Visitors who come from all European Community countries with a driving licence can use this licence without age limit, or can ask for conversion to a French driving licence.

You only have the obligation to change your foreign driving licence into a French one if the French authorities want to take off points from the driving licence, or suspend or take it away, in case of offence.

Source of information: DLVA in the UK, and an interview from a French civil servant in charge of driving licences at the Prefecture.

As long you do not have an accident, the world seems like a long and quiet river. But when an accident happens, whether or not it is your fault, then life can soon become a nightmare. We will try to give you as much as information as we can, so that in such a case you can defend yourself.

In France the various insurance companies have signed an agreement with each other. This same agreement has been signed by foreign insurance companies throughout Europe. This is why your UK insurer will provide an “agreed statement of facts on motor vehicle accident“ if you tell them that you are going abroad. Using this system, the payment settlements are faster and easier, and it does avoid endless discussions, to finally end up with a nock for nock. So have an accident form in the glove compartment and use it to make things go easier and to get a faster settlement.

You must also remember that once this form is handed in and each party has stated his position, it cannot be changed. So be wary when you fill in this form. There is no way to come back on the facts after the insurance company has received it. Sometimes people are not responsible, but by one single cross in the wrong place they accept liability and what is done, is done.

When there is no agreement between the two parties, and one does not want to sign, then automatically the case will be a nock for nock situation, and each party will be 50% responsible. When you have a car accident on the Continent, the best thing to do is to fetch your form and fill it in with the other driver on the spot – don’t let people walk away with it for whatever reason. My experience is that if time elapses between an accident and filling in the paper, those who feel themselves at fault change their mind or don’t really remember what happened and so come up with another story. Things can then become very difficult and stressful.

When you have finished filling in the form, you can take your car if it is still in driving condition and do whatever you had planned. If the car is no longer in a drivable condition, you will have to call your garage – or if you are away from home, a local garage – to tow the car from the road. This becomes far easier if you have roadside assistance included in your insurance policy – just one number to call and they come and get the car and bring you home.

If you do have an accident in which people are injured, then the police will take over the treatment of the accident and create a special file. If you do have the opportunity to fill in the form then please do so, it can make thing’s much easier, even when the police make their own report. If nobody is injured then the police are just not interested, so only call the police when people are injured!

How must I fill in the accident form? Our advice is:

• Try to get the other driver to put a cross in the ‘who’s to blame’ column and avoid doing so yourself, if at all possible, at the time of the accident. People sometimes realise, on reflection, that things may have been slightly different than first perceived.

• If it is at all possible get a witness who was either standing at the roadside, driving behind you or coming towards you. They must be willing to testify and he/she must be acceptable by both parties. The name of the witness MUST be entered in section 5 of the ‘Constat’ otherwise they will not be recognised later.

• A camera, such as a disposable one, is also useful if you think you need to show exactly what has happened.

• If you have any problems please call us immediately for some ‘on the spot’ advice.

• If you do have problems with the agreed statement in French we can provide you with a copy of a form in English…

For more information, download our translated accident form with notes or see the ‘Who’s responsible?’ page.