Glass Insurance: How to Properly Insure Against Broken Glass

The German saying “shards bring luck” might be curious, but it won’t do much to console you if your expensive glass vase or stylish glass table ends up shattered. Today, glass makes up a large and often expensive part of many modern homes. Luckily, potential glass damages can be insured just like many other household risks.

Damaged glass: Who insures what?

A difference is made between glass that forms part of a building’s structure, and glass furnishings. A rider covering glass furnishings can be added to a household insurance policy, while damages to structural glass are covered by liability insurance or buildings insurance.

As a renter, you only need to insure your glass furnishings. If you damage structural glass, this will be covered by your liability insurance because it is not your own property. Besides windows and glass facades, structural glass also includes ceramics in the kitchen and bathroom, for example.

Glass furnishings insurance complements your household insurance by covering damages to household glass including glass tables, glass vases and aquariums. Depending on the insurance provider, natural stone furnishings might also be covered.

Damages to glassware such as dining utensils, hand mirrors, optical instruments, light bulbs, neon tubes and glass on electronics or electric appliances are normally not covered.

Glass insurance: Premiums and deductibles

Premiums for glass furnishings insurance vary depending on the insurer and the amount of coverage you need. Typically, the lowest amount of coverage you can get with household insurance policies ranges between 1000 and 5000 francs. You pay an added premium, currently between 8 and 20 francs depending on the insurer, to add the rider to your annual household insurance policy.

Note that a deductible often applies to damage claims. Example: You own a vase valued at 150 francs and a glass table worth 800 francs, and you get glass insurance with a sum insured of 1000 francs and a deductible of 200 francs.

If your vase were to break, your insurance would not pay out any benefit at all because the value of the vase is lower than your deductible. If your expensive glass table were damaged, you would receive a 600-franc benefit from your insurer (800 francs minus the 200 franc deductible).

Insuring structural glass

If you own a property, you have the option of insuring structural glass as well as the building. Structural glass insurance can be obtained for as little as 21 francs per year. Larger amounts of coverage (up to 10,000 francs) can cost as much as 250 francs per year.

Unlike damages to glass furnishings, damages to structural glass can be very expensive. Because of this, the deductible amount (normally between 0 and 400 francs) is less important when you are choosing a structural glass insurance policy than it is when you choose a household glass furnishings insurance policy.

The moneyland.ch team

More on this topic:
Swiss household insurance compared
Swiss liability insurance compared