Buying a home on the French Riviera: insuring it from day one

Every year, buyers from the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, North America and elsewhere fall for an apartment overlooking the bay of Cannes, a villa in the hills of Mougins or a house in Le Cannet. The search, the negotiation and the paperwork with the notaire take up most of their attention. Insurance often comes last, sometimes only days before completion. In France, however, the moment the final deed is signed, the property and the risks attached to it belong to the buyer. Planning cover early is one of the simplest ways to protect the purchase.

Ownership, and risk, pass at the final deed

A French property sale usually happens in two stages: a preliminary contract, most often a compromis de vente, followed a few months later by the final deed signed before the notaire. In practice, the preliminary contract almost always postpones the transfer of ownership to the signature of that deed, and with ownership comes responsibility for the building. If a pipe bursts or a storm damages the roof that same evening, the new owner has to deal with it. A policy that starts on the day of completion leaves no gap, however short.

Buyers who finance the purchase with a French mortgage will also find that the lender asks for proof of home insurance, usually alongside borrower insurance covering the loan itself. These are two distinct products that should not be confused. Buyers paying cash have good reasons to be covered from the first day too: liability towards neighbours, damage caused to the flat below, theft during the first weeks when the property often stands empty while furniture is on its way. Starting the process between the two signatures leaves time to compare offers.

What a standard French home policy covers

The standard product is the assurance multirisque habitation, a combined contract that bundles damage to the property and personal liability. It usually covers fire, water damage, storms, glass breakage, theft and vandalism depending on the options chosen, and civil liability for damage the household causes to others. Property policies in France also include cover for natural disasters, which applies when an inter-ministerial order recognising the event as a natural disaster is published for the municipality concerned, as provided by article L. 125-1 of the Insurance Code.

The conditions matter more than the headline price. Look at how contents are valued and whether new-for-old cover is offered, which security measures are required for theft cover to apply, and how long the property may stay empty before some guarantees are reduced. Check the excess for water damage and storms, which are among the most frequent claims. For valuable items such as art, jewellery or designer furniture, standard policies often set sub-limits: listing and declaring them avoids disappointment later.

Villas in the hills: pools, slopes and brush clearance

The area around Cannes has its own profile. Many villas come with a swimming pool, a pool house, an automatic gate, terraces built on slopes and sometimes a guest annex. All of these should be declared, because they change both the insured value and the liability risk. Some valleys have experienced heavy rainfall and flooding in past years, and the state of natural and technological risks provided with the sale documents shows which hazards apply to the plot. Answer the insurer’s questions about location precisely rather than approximately.

Properties in wooded areas face another issue. In much of the Alpes-Maritimes, owners must clear brush around their buildings under the Forestry Code, and this obligation follows the property when it is sold. Article L. 122-8 of the Insurance Code allows insurers to apply an additional excess, on top of the contractual one, for damage caused by a forest fire when it is established that the owner had not carried out this clearing. We describe the obligation in more detail in our article on brush clearance when a villa is sold (in French).

Apartments and the co-ownership policy

Most apartments in Cannes are part of a copropriété, a co-ownership managed by a syndic. The building itself, including the roof, facades and common parts, is normally insured by a collective policy taken out by the syndic and paid through the service charges. That policy does not replace an individual one. Article 9-1 of the law of 10 July 1965 requires every co-owner, whether living in the flat or not, to insure against the civil liability they may incur as an owner. Liability cover is therefore a legal obligation, not an optional extra.

Water damage between flats is the classic source of claims in older buildings, and the rules for deciding which insurer pays can seem complex at first. Many policies also require a reinforced door or specific locks for theft cover, particularly on ground floors or in seaside residences that stay empty out of season. When buying, ask for the building’s insurance details and the minutes of recent general meetings, which form part of the documents gathered for the sale. They reveal disputes, planned works and recurring problems such as roof leaks.

Understanding where the collective policy stops and where yours begins makes claims far easier to handle. Specialist guides to home insurance france written for English speakers help decode the vocabulary of French contracts and the steps to follow after a loss, which is particularly useful in the first months of ownership.

If you let the property

Many international buyers let their property for part of the year, either to long-term tenants or to visitors during the festivals, congresses and summer months. This changes the insurance picture. Under a standard residential lease, the tenant must insure against rental risks, an obligation set by article 7 of the law of 6 July 1989. As an owner, you will still want cover for the periods when the flat is empty between lets, and for cases where the tenant’s policy does not respond. Policies designed for non-occupying owners exist for this situation.

Short-term holiday lets need particular care. Some home policies exclude or restrict cover when the property is let commercially, and the guarantees advertised by booking platforms are no substitute for a proper contract. Tell your insurer exactly how the property will be used, how many weeks a year it will be let and whether a concierge service is involved. Cannes also applies its own rules to furnished holiday lets, explained in our note on holiday rental rules in Cannes (in French); check them before taking the first booking.

A checklist for the weeks before completion

A few weeks before the final signature, gather what the insurer will ask for: living area, number of rooms, year of construction, pool or outbuildings, security features and an estimate of the value of contents. Request several quotes and compare them on the same basis, with the same excesses and limits. Make sure the start date matches the completion date and keep the certificate at hand, since the notaire or the lender may ask for it. If you do not read French comfortably, ask an adviser to go through the exclusions with you in your own language.

Once you have the keys, take dated photographs of each room, keep receipts for significant purchases and store copies of the policy and the building documents somewhere safe. Note the emergency numbers of your insurer and of the syndic. These habits make a real difference on the day something goes wrong, and they cost nothing.

Where to check

Information checked on 7 November 2026.

• Natural disaster cover: article L. 125-1 of the Code des assurances, on Légifrance.
• Additional excess where brush clearance was not carried out: article L. 122-8 of the Code des assurances.
• Co-owners’ liability insurance: article 9-1 of law no. 65-557 of 10 July 1965.
• Tenant’s obligation to insure under a residential lease: article 7 of law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989.
• General information on home insurance: the service-public.fr pages on assurance habitation.