BGH: Apartment owners obliged to pay a deductible

Created: 09/16/2022Updated: 09/16/2022 10:54 am

According to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), homeowners must share the insurance deductible.

© Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

Building insurance in homeowners' associations often causes disputes.

Because not everyone is always affected by damage - does everyone still have to pay?

Yes, the BGH now judges.

Does that always apply?

Karlsruhe - Apartment owners may be obliged to jointly pay for damage in the system that only affects a single third-party apartment.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that such a regulation for building insurance is fundamentally legal.

A higher deductible means lower insurance premiums, and everyone benefits from that.

So everyone would have to bear the costs together.

According to the decision of the Karlsruhe judges, the same applies if the deductible is set so high due to unusually frequent damage: Even then everyone would benefit from the fact that the system was insured at all.

(Ref. V ZR 69/21)

When does homeowners insurance take effect?

Homeowners insurance kicks in when a home is damaged or completely destroyed.

Damage caused by mains water, fire and natural hazards such as storms and hail are usually covered.

In this specific case, it was a large complex in Cologne with many smaller apartments and a large commercial unit.

Water damage often occurs in apartments due to defective pipes.

The owners of the commercial unit have to pay a particularly large amount because of the large area they occupy, although they say they have never had water damage.

According to the BGH, a different distribution key could be justified if there are structural differences.

The Cologne district court must now examine this again.

dpa