Hausrat: insuring your stuff in Germany

What Hausrat covers

Hausratversicherung insures your movable belongings inside your home against a defined set of perils:

• Einbruchdiebstahl (burglary): theft after a break-in, plus robbery and vandalism following a break-in.
• Feuer (fire): fire, lightning, explosion, smoke.
• Leitungswasser (water): burst pipes, water-heater leaks, and resulting damage.
• Sturm und Hagel (storm and hail): wind damage from ~force 8 upward, hail.

It covers everything you own inside the flat - furniture, electronics, appliances, clothing, kitchenware, jewellery and valuables (up to sub-limits) - paying the replacement value (Neuwert) to buy new equivalents, not the depreciated value. A burglary or a burst pipe that ruins your electronics and furniture is exactly what it's for. Once you've furnished the empty flat, the sum you'd pay to replace it all is precisely what this insures.

It is NOT the same as liability insurance

The confusion every newcomer has - these are two different products:

• Hausratversicherung (this guide): covers your own belongings against theft/fire/water/storm.
• Privathaftpflicht (Personal liability insurance): covers damage you cause to others - and is the more essential of the two (Germany holds you liable with all your assets).

If you buy one optional insurance, make it liability; Hausrat is the sensible second. They're sometimes sold together but are separate covers.

The €650/m² rule and the under-insurance trap

How the coverage sum is set - and the trap to avoid:

• The standard way to set your Versicherungssumme (sum insured) is a flat €650 per m² of living space - so a 70 m² flat is insured for ~€45,500. This is meant to comfortably cover an average household's contents.
• The under-insurance trap (Unterversicherung): if you insure for *less* than your contents are actually worth, the insurer cuts any payout proportionally - insure €40,000 of a €60,000 household and a €10,000 claim pays only ~€6,600.
• The fix: the Unterversicherungsverzicht (under-insurance waiver). Take out cover at the €650/m² standard (the Verbraucherzentrale method) and the insurer waives the proportional cut - you're paid in full up to the sum insured regardless. Always take a policy with this waiver - it's standard and removes the biggest claim risk.

What needs add-ons (don't assume it's included)

Two important gaps most standard policies leave:

• Bike theft (Fahrraddiebstahl): a standard Hausrat only covers bikes stolen in a break-in from a locked room (your cellar/flat) - not theft from the street. For street theft you need the Fahrraddiebstahl add-on (~€20-50/year), worth it in bike-heavy German cities (Cycling in Germany).
• Natural hazards (Elementarschäden): flooding, heavy-rain backup, and similar are not in the standard tariff - you need the Elementarschaden add-on (~€30-100/year), which the Verbraucherzentrale strongly recommends as extreme-weather events rise.
• Valuables (jewellery, cash, electronics) have sub-limits - if you own high-value items, check and raise them.
• Glass breakage (Glasbruch) is often a separate small add-on.

What it costs

• Typical premiums: ~€60-150/year, with good tariffs available from around €60 in favourable cases - modest for what it protects.
• Price depends on your postcode (burglary risk), living area (m²), the add-ons, and any deductible (Selbstbeteiligung - a small excess lowers the premium).
• Compare on cover quality (waiver, add-ons, sub-limits), not just price - a slightly pricier policy with the under-insurance waiver and Elementar cover is better value than the cheapest bare tariff.

Practical points for expats

• When to get it: once you've moved into your own flat with belongings worth protecting - a sensible Your first 30 days in Germany follow-up after liability insurance.
• Renters vs owners: Hausrat covers *your contents* whether you rent or own. The *building* itself is the landlord's/owner's Wohngebäudeversicherung, not yours.
• Shared flats (WG): a Hausrat policy typically covers the policyholder's own belongings; flatmates may need their own, or check whether a shared household can be jointly insured.
• Moving: cover usually transfers to your new address (tell the insurer); there's often a transitional period covering both old and new flat during a move.

Frequently asked questions