Dear All,

I have been scratching heads while calling different insurances and still getting nowhere.

I am planning to buy a new house which is on the ground floor with 2 stories. The roof from 2nd floor is the garden of 2 different houses above me. The last owner told me that she has been very careful and watchful of what plants were used by gardens above. As it can cause a damage to the roof/walls of this house.

To have a peaceful state of mind, I am trying to get an insurance. When I call a company like Smile (where I have my personal liability insurance), they say it should be covered by Gebädeversicherung (GVZ in Zurich) whereas when I call GVZ, they suggest they cover kind of natural hazards and I should buy this via private insurance.

I would therefore appreciate any suggestion on the topic. Thanks.

I don't own a house so not sure if it's the right solution but might be worth a look at. Try HEV (HausEigentümerVerband). Surely they must have had that problem before. You might have to join up. Check out the website first. https://www.hev-schweiz.ch/
At least it's where I would start.

But shouldn't it be the (upstairs) neighbours that need the insurance?

It should absolutely be the liability insurance of the offending party, not the damaged party. We had a similar problem with a neighbour with their trees damaging our garage roof. Their liability insurance paid up to repair the damage (and they cut the trees back).

I think this might be the solution. I spoke to an agency today who also suggested the same. In case that neighbour is not cooperative, then my Legal Insurance can help to make him liable via court.