Hello,


We're in the process of buying a house here in the canton of Zurich. As some of the threads talk about - buildings insurance passes to the buyers unless you cancel within 30 days.

The optional part of the insurance policy here is with AXA - and they are trying to increase the price by CHF100 - from CHF340 to CHF440.

My understanding is that if we simply do nothing the policy will pass to us - meaning we'll take it over at CHF340 - and thus avoid the price hike from the unscrupulous agent trying it on.

Does anyone else have any experience here please? I'll ask the notary in a couple of days and report back what he says in case it's of interest to others...

Our (Zurich) building insurance is covered by the obligatory Cantonal Insurance (GVZ). It's CHF210.00 this year indexed on their rebuilding valuation when the house was completed.

Contents is another policy and I very much doubt is transferable. Don't forget you take the value of the land away from building insurance...

Wow, 210.00 is incredibly cheap, no idea what your rebuilding costs are but I assume 500,000 plus. I would certainly not want to invest in that insurance co.

buildings in switzerland rarely get totally destroyed

Refurbishment costs more than replacement, that does not explain the low price. What do you pay in the UK?.......

I can't remember. Building insurance is dirt cheap, because the risks are so low.

With 1 million houses, you have 210 million CHF a year. That's before investment returns.

Even if you have 10 houses destroyed each year costing 1 million each to fix, that's still 200 million left in profit.

They probably just invest in fundsmith and pay the repair costs out of the dividends

Did a quick google:


During Q4, 2014, the Tracker shows:
The average annual premium paid for building insurance was £230 or £4.43 a week. This was down 4% on the previous quarter and a fall of 6% over the year since quarter 4, 2013.

It covers CHF 660,000 rebuilding costs

Details here: http://www.gvz.ch/hauptnavigation/gv...len-und-fakten

I pay 195 for mine. Don't think the rebuilding cost cover is as high though - about 350,000 iirc.

Massa, you need to check which building insurance the seller is talking about. The building cover we're talking about is compulsory in most, if not all, cantons and is only available from the one company - GVZ for Zurich as AbFab said - and would be transferable since you must have it and only one company supplies it.

But this insurance only covers rebuilding of the base property, i.e. walls, roof, floors, stairs, etc. It doesn't cover things like replacing kitchens, bathrooms, heating system, etc, iirc. You need a separate insurance for that and you can get that from any insurance company that offers it. At least this is the way it works for my insurance with ECAB here in Fribourg canton. I have Baloise for the other building insurance.

Average UK house price is £250k, rebuilding costs nearer £150k so several times more expensive than in CH. My wife pays ca £1k

You can not invest in that company. It is canton owned but independent and they have a monopoly in canton Zurich. They also have a big say in anything regarding fire protection and fire fighters.

OP is aware and actually mentionaed it:

Thanks for the feedback folks. This is an optional insurance as it's a Minergie building and the pipes are in the floors and ceiling and we want to have extra protection should something go pear shaped....

On the point I was mentioning - as promised I found out from our lawyer helping us with the purchase that the insurance contract automatically goes to the new owners. But the insurance company has the right to terminate the insurance with 14 days as of the knowledge of the new ownership. Hence, if you do not conclude a new insurance, there is a risk that the insurance will terminate the contract. The only question is when legally speaking the 14 days start. "Knowledge" probably means full knowledge, and can only exist after the transfer of ownership. Today they know about it, but not sufficiently because the transfer has not happened.

Hope that helps others.

Not obligatory in Ticino, and available from any company. Also, not transferable, though we stayed with the same company as the previous owner (AXA) as we do most of our insurance with them.

Tom