What makes holiday home insurance in France such a typically different matter to arranging the same cover as at home is, of course, the fact that it operates in a different country, with its own distinct, customs, practices and ways of doing things. How might this affect the insurance you may wish to put in place for your second home across the Channel?

Building insurance

• safeguarding the actual building itself might be one of your prime concerns about arranging holiday home insurance in France. Events such as fire, flooding, storm damage, impacts and falling objects may have the potential for the complete destruction of the building and your need to rebuild it from the ground up;

• it may be tempting therefore to follow the same rule of thumb that you used to provide for your building and contents insurance back at home in the UK and place an insurance valuation on the property that covers the possibility of it having to be completely reconstructed;

• when arranging your holiday home insurance in France, however, you may also need to pay particular attention to specific areas of risk typically ruled out from conventional French policies – especially with respect to such events as flooding and storm damage;

Contents insurance

• similar differences might apply with respect to the cover for the contents of your holiday home. French insurance policies might exclude certain risks or particular circumstances that you might not usually find in those written for the English market;

Employers liability

• if you employ someone in France to help clean, cook or do other household chores, or if you employ someone to look after the property when you are not there, you might already have considered the need for employers’ liability protection. This is designed to indemnify you in the event of claims by such employees for damage or loss to their property or from personal injury whilst in your employment;

• once again, however, the employees’ rights to claim and your obligations as the employer to pay any compensation, might be somewhat different to the rules that apply in the UK;

Buying overseas property cover

• because of the potential for differences between the insurance you may be accustomed to at home and those that apply to your second home in France, you might consider it important to arrange the cover you need locally;

• however, there are also companies in the UK which are fully versed in all of those differences. These specialist insurance providers may be able to help you ensure not only that the insurance policy you buy meets French standards but that these are incorporated into a policy document written in plain English;

• arranging holiday home insurance in France with the aid of such a specialist insurance provider might also bring the advantage of paying the same annual premium in sterling, rather than needing to worry about fluctuating exchange rates.