Natural disasters
Vast majority for compulsory insurance against flooding
The new coalition wants to introduce an insurance obligation for floods. This also greets many of those who threaten no flood at all. But the plan has pitfalls.
According to a new survey, the insurance obligation planned by the new federal government against floods and other natural disasters is broadly approved. Almost four fifths both the homeowner and the tenant welcome the plan of the Union and the SPD, as the representative survey of the comparison portal Verivox showed.
In mid-May 2025, the market research institute Innofact interviewed a total of 1,052 homeowners living in their own property and 1,002 tenants aged 18 to 79. According to this, 78 percent of the owners surveyed and 79 percent of tenants supported the introduction of a compulsory insurance against elementary damage.
Willingness to pay is limited
However, the spirits already differ on the question of how much the compulsory insurance should cost: 15.9 percent of the owners surveyed replied that they could no longer bear further costs, another 28.5 percent do not want this.
The occasion of the government plans are the billions of billions for the federal and state governments associated with floods. Large flood disasters regularly follow aid programs for the victims who are heavily burdened by the state treasury. And these aids are so expensive, among other things, because only half of the German residential buildings are insured against elementary damage.
Coalition agreement leaves questions unanswered
But central questions are unclear. It is open whether all homeowners will really have to take out elementary insurance in the future, or whether the coalition will give the unruly a loophole: “We check whether this model should be provided with an opt-out solution,” says the coalition agreement.
The opt-out solution is a claim by the German insurers. A general obligation without any exception would mean that the buildings would also have to be insured, which were built in quasi -guaranteed flood area. The result would be high costs for insurance. So far, it is the case that the owners often do not find any insurers of strongly endangered buildings, and if so, then only at very high prices.
Promising insurer
However, the insurers have largely abandoned their earlier fundamental resistance to insurance obligation, but not unconditionally. “The fact that the Federal Government has anchored elementary protection in the coalition agreement is an important signal,” says Jörg Asmussen, general manager of the overall association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV). But insurance cover alone is not sufficient.
The GDV calls for a comprehensive concept including stricter construction planning: “This includes, among other things, climate-like city planning, targeted removal of areas, a binding construction stop in highly dangerous areas and a climate risk assessment in building permits,” says Asmussen.
Reckless builders
The required construction stop in “highly dangerous areas” is a second miracle point. Building in flood areas in Germany is actually prohibited. But this ban is holey: exceptions in the Water Household Act allow construction in flood areas. According to an analysis of the GDV, there are more than 300,000 buildings in Germany in an endangered location, 80 percent of them in temporary or final flood areas.
The federal and state governments shy away from confrontation with the municipalities
Because living near a water is attractive as long as it does not step over the banks. But many politicians are afraid to stand up for sharper construction planning. An example: “The Bavarian State Ministry of Housing, Building and Transport sees a flat -rate ban on construction areas in certain areas, rather it is always important to check the specific respective framework conditions and weigh the open results,” says a spokesman.
Bavaria is no exception in this regard. Many managers on the executive floors of German insurance companies are Sauer that companies – and thus their customers – should pay for damage in the future, of which a considerable part would not even arise if the planning is reasonable.
Coalition partners circulate construction ban
The coalition agreement can be seen that the Union and SPD only want to approach this conflict with polite reluctance: “We check how planning providers in the countries can be sensitized to their responsibility in the land use planning in particularly damage -prone areas and specify the state liability rules of the planning bodies, which show new construction areas in previously undeveloped areas despite these risks.”
The German Association of Cities and Municipalities appeals to the municipalities to fundamentally avoid new construction areas in areas at risk of flood. The municipal association also considers the opt-out solution. “This would result in the final decision with the policyholder,” says Bernd Düsterdiek, the deputy for urban planning and environmental protection.
A third delicate point is the question of who should ultimately pay elementary insurance: only the homeowners or the tenants? In principle, owners may change the costs of building insurance to the tenants. This includes elementary damage.
However, the German Tenants’ Association called for this to delete this from the Operating Cost Ordinance last year. The coalition agreement also remains Wolkig in this regard: “We have the concerns of the tenants in mind.”
Home owners’ association against compulsory insurance
The owners’ association Haus+Grund refuses to introduce an obligation to compulsory insurance, as well as the deletion of the elementary insurance from the list of all -round operating costs. “Insurance are only the second best solution,” says Inka-Marie Storm, the association’s chief legal judiciary. “It is more effective not to cause damage in the first place.”
In this respect, Haus+Grund calls for a major preventive package against flooding instead of the compulsory insurance: This includes, among other things, the waiver of new construction areas in well -known danger zones and better technical flood protection through dike construction, renaturation of rivers and other measures.
It is unknown when the coalition is to become a law. The Federal Ministry of Justice announces that they are “intensively” working on the implementation. Details are not unveiled with reference to the early stage.
dpa
Source: Stern
