Apartment damage insurance as a sublessee

A water leak in the flat I am subletting led to damage in the business below. They now need the ceiling replaced in one room. As a subletter I don't have any insurance, not on the contents or for damage to the flat itself. I realize now that this is a mistake, and intend to at the very minimum insure my contents. Legally however, do I have to have insurance on damage to flat or for a situation like this if I am the subletter? Is it the responsibility of the person who's is actually renting to have the insurance. I intend to take full responsibility for this situation, but in any case am I legally liable for it, or is the actual renter of the flat?

I don't know the answer to your question and am interested to find out. But I am also interested in why you intend to take responsibility for the situation. Was it the result of something that you did? Also, when you say "renter", do you mean "landlord"?

No the person I am renting from is renting from the building. It's a one year sublease.

if you have caused the water leak either by accident or neglegence, regardless of your contract situation (i.e. if you have rented the place yourself or been allowed to sublet by the landlord or the main tenant) you are liable for damages you caused to the third parties who can prove that they have a claim due to the damage caused by you. Therefore the rental contract situation is only of minor interest. Basically, to give you an example, if you visit a friend's place just overnight and you open the water to fill the tub and fall asleep while the place gets drowned and the tenant below has all kind of damages (from having to replace wallpaper to destroyed electronic equipment to cleaning costs etc) you would of course be held liable and not the friend whose rented or owns the place you stayed over. Whatever damage or injury you cause to other people's property or health/life is something you will be held accountable for where-ever you are... So STB is right to ask: did you cause the damage/leakage somehow or not? If not, somebody else should be liable, if yes, then you are. Period.

This is why my "ceterum censeo" in my contributions here on Toytown is that everyone must have a third party liability insurance because it covers potentially catastrophic situations in your life which otherwise can cost you all you own and now and all you ever earn in the future. Since such an insurance is only 80-120 EUR/year there is no good reason not to "afford" it.

The content insurance would only cover your own belongings and not the damage to others... therefore this should not be your primary concern if you are looking for an insurance to pretect you in the future. What you need is a "Private Haftplichtversicherung", i.e. third party liability insurance.

Cheerio

When I was flat-sharing before, one of my flatmates sublet his room when he went abroad for 6 months. The person broke the toilet seat! (Well, he's a BIG guy!) This person has to replace the toilet seat. He mentioned that he can claim from his father's Haftpflichtversicherung (whatever) and mentioned that his father broke it when he visited. That's when I found out that Haftpflichtversicherung does NOT cover yourself if you live in the house.

Living in Germany without a Haftplichtversicherung is not good.

I feel partially responsible. The problem is that regular hand strength is not enough to turn the water off on the faucet all the way, you have to use a tool to turn it off completely. I didn't use a tool this morning and it was dripping on the edge rather directly into the basin. Furthermore, by process of elimination I don't see how any responsibility could fall on anyone but me. I've spoken to another friend in the interim and I've been told that by law the primary renter is required to have insurance on this apartment and that this situation would be covered by that. I'm hoping that is the case.

@starshollow I need to get all my personal insurances sorted, can you contact me with info on your services?

Well, an expert in insurances already gave you (for free) his opinion but you still think your friend knows better. Then what was the point of making this thread?

Like look at the last line of each of his mails...

v2M: if you have to use a tool to turn of the water faucet, there is of course a major fault on the side of the landlord or main tenant not to provide a faucet that fullfills basic technical standards and either one of them should exchange that faulty part at their own costs asap. If you have used it for the first time without knowing that you need to use such a tool, you would not be held liable for that same reason either. But as it sounds like you knew about this from experience, it would be considered your fault by neglegence and thus you would be liable.

Your friend, btw, is not correct that the law demands from every tenant to have a liability insurance - I at least have never seen, read or heard about such a law. But many landlords demand that a tenants provides such an insurance as part of the lease contract and they are allowed to do that by law, maybe this is where the misunderstanding comes from. Still I can't see why the main tenant should be held liable/accountable under the prevailing circumstances you describe if he does not want to/agree to. Of course he can arange with you that he tells the insurance that it was him who caused the leakege... not that I would recommend such a blatant insurance fraud but I hear that it is what happens a lot

Cheerio

@Krieg, thanks for your snarky comment. Unless you want to offer an answer to a question, you can keep your attitude to yourself. Feel free to reread what I wrote, when I said "in the interim" meaning,since I posted the topic. Furthermore, at no point did I say I think my friend knows better. I simply stated that I was hoping for the best case scenario.

@Starshollow, thanks for your help up to this point. There will be no insurance fraud as my renter has no insurance either, so it looks like this will be out of pocket. Luckily the damage is not that serious, and it looks like it will just take some drywall and paint to fix this.

You have cused damage to a third parties property.That means Haftpflichtversicherung.If you do not have that then you have been stupid.Household insurance covers you only for your household stuff.If the tap in question was faulty when you moved in then you should have told the person you are renting off.Saving on a new tap insert ( do not know the technical name ) which costs about € 3 would have been the normal thing to do.So basically being cheap and stupid has followed the norm and you are going to get a big bill.

I don't think she was being stupid, just uninformed, and there's no need to be harsh as she has been quite respectful and openly admitting it was her fault and she will take responsibility. Lesson learned.

I am curious though that a dripping faucet would cause so much damage. Were you gone a long time?

while the damage at the neighbour's ceiling below may cause some hurtful dents into v2m's wallet, this is not too dramatic a result and if it was only for damage like that one might still think not to need this 3rd party liability insurance stuff...

but just imagine that the leaking water caused some small water-pools on the floor/carpet of the neighbour below and because of some electric cords in the vicinity these pools are electrified. The neighbour or one of his staff steps in, gets a full electric blast (because he was wearing open shoes or whatever made sure that the body got contact with the electric current) and falls back on a desk/chair/furniture where he knocks his head/breakes his spine etc. Or he has a cardiac arrest because of the electric blast. Suddenly you could face serious costs for the health treatment, loss of income and potentially the permanent disability for the rest of his and your life for this poor bastard... Or the place below burns down because of an electric shortcut caused by the leakage: not only would you have to pay for all the destroyed furniture and equipment but also for the loss of business for the time until the shop was restored etc.

Liability insurance is so important because a short moment of mindlessness or neglegence can cause a personal and financial catastrophy for a person to ruin the rest of his life... and 80-120 EUR insurance costs per year are really a small price to be covered against that. On top of that, as I already wrote in other threads about this insurance: a good 3rd party liability insurance would always include "Forderungsausfall" in the coverage - this would protect you if YOU would be the victim of someone elses accident/neglegence and if this person has neither sufficient insurance nor personal funds enough to pay for your damage/injury. So this insurance protects you from claims of 3rd parties as well as your own claims against others if they have not sufficient coverage to honor your claims.

So who is still without? Anyone? Then you should know what to do first thing on Monday morning...

Cheerio