Following on from a suggestion by Simon, we are planning to bring you a regular insurance newsletter - so here’s the current ‘hot news’ from the insurance business:
CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION :
Legislation is tightening up around builders and even more so around project managers in the construction business in France with an EU regulation called BIM (Building Information Modeling). The direct consequence is that banks will always ask for the “domage ouvrage” insurance to finance renovation work or for a new house and they check that everyone has a 10 year insurance (Décenale) policy.
Another direct consequence of the BIM is that all builders are now tied to their ‘obligation of advice’ and, in the event of an issue, even if that issue was directly asked for the customer (usage of certain materials that are not ‘state of the art’ for example) the builder can (and will) be held responsible for this (for 10 years after he/she has finished the job) except if he/she (the builder) specifically stated on his quote or invoice that he/she did not advise and that the customer is in agreement; the customer also has to sign that statement.
HEALTH:
The ‘0 reste à charge’ - from now to 2022 all healthcare professionals (dentists, opticians, etc.) will have to offer you an option where you don’t have anything to pay… if you have a mutuelle that’s ‘0 reste à charge’ compatible. This is a bit of a smoke screen as the ‘0 reste à charge’ already kind of exists. For example you can ask for a metal crown at the dentist and get that for close to 0€ right now and the ‘0 reste à charge’ will just mean that it is 0€ and not 10€ but the ceramic crown you want will still be ‘unchartered’ in terms of pricing as each dentist can still charge you more than 1000€ if they so desire…
Brexit - It’s actually not that much of a big deal as far as insurance policies are concerned. The only major impact is in regard to access to French social security. People who possess S1s are okay because their ‘rights’ have been converted from the UK to France. The ones who are ‘self employed’ (for example with a gîte business or simply registered as doing business in France with some turnover even if very low) are good to go as well as they are paying social security charges through the business. People who are employed are covered as well because they’ll get into the system within a maximum of three months. The retired or inactive newcomers are the ones who will suffer the most but, thanks to PUMA, if their income is low they’ll be granted free access to the system and thanks to the AME, they’ll be given emergency hospital treatment if required in any case. Or as our resident insurance expert @fabien points out - “we don’t let people die on the sidewalk in France just because they can’t afford to go to hospital!”
If you feel you need your cover reviewing or renewing - get in touch with @fabien today.
