Private liability (highly recommended)

Key points at a glance

• Covers all important risks: Third-party liability insurance covers the costs of damage that you cause to other people or their property – for example, damage you are responsible for as a tenant or mishaps caused by your child.

• Care free in the event of a claim: While third-party liability insurance is not mandatory, without it you may be deemed liable in the event of a claim with your current and future assets until the claim has been paid.

• Protection for everyone under one roof: Third-party liability insurance protects everyone who lives with you in a single household.

Advantages with AXA

• Personal injury: If you seriously injure another person either by accident or error, your personal liability insurance will cover the costs incurred.
• Property damage: Have you accidentally scratched your neighbor’s car or has your child’s ball crashed into a school window? Personal liability insurance covers the cost.
• Damage to property in care, custody and control: If anything in your care (anything borrowed, kept in leasehold, rented, leased) is damaged, this is basically covered through personal liability insurance.
• Damage caused by renter: If the washbasin is cracked when you move out or the parquet floor has deep scratch marks, you personally would have to pay for repairs or replacement if you didn't have insurance. If you have personal liability insurance, you're spared this.
• Owner damage: If a guest slips on your icy stairway, you can be made liable as the owner. Personal liability insurance covers any costs that arise.
• Animal and dog owner damage: If your dog, cat or other pet causes damage to third parties, you are responsible for this.  
• Damage as bicycle, electric bike or moped rider: If you damage someone else's property or injure someone on your two-wheeler, personal liability insurance protects you against claims.
• Damage from self-employment: If damage is caused during your work as a self-employed person, our personal liability insurance covers you up to an annual turnover of CHF 20,000. If you earn more, you need separate professional liability insurance.
• Damage from part-time or voluntary activities: If you carry out a part-time or voluntary activity in a cultural organization or at your local tennis club, we also cover your liability in this role.
• Defense against unjustified claims: Passive legal protection is also automatically included in personal liability insurance.

Do you sometimes drive other people's cars, have a pet or like to light candles at home (please note: gross negligence)? You can also have these and other risks insured, in line with your individual needs:

• Third-party driver insurance: If, as the driver, you damage a friend's car while parking it, we cover the damage if the third-party vehicle is not already fully covered against accidental damage or the owner would lose their bonus under vehicle insurance as a result of your maneuver. 
• Car sharing  and rental vehicles: With supplementary coverage, expensive supplementary insurance of hire cars would not be required, as the former covers any damage when car sharing or using rental vehicles.
• Pet damage to rental apartments: This insurance module makes sense if you have pets and would also like to be covered against any damage they may cause in your rental apartment, such as cats scratching doors. Other liability cases by pets are already included in basic cover.
• Leasing a horse: If horses panic, this can quickly cause serious damage. This supplementary insurance covers the costs of accident-related injuries to horses that are borrowed, rented, being kept temporarily or ridden on behalf of another party.
• Liability as a hunter: If required, we also provide protection for liability risks arising from hunting.
• Gross negligence: If you would also like to be on the safe side for any damage you yourself cause, such as a fire in your apartment due to unattended candles, the benefits under AXA supplementary coverage itself are not affected by gross negligence.
• Loss of keys and key service: It's always expensive to have locks opened and replaced. If, for example, you lose your key to your rental or holiday home, we organize a key service and also pay to have the locks changed.
• Emergency home services: To prevent small claims getting unnecessarily larger, such as blocked drain pipes when quick support is required, we arrange the services of a tradesman and cover the cost.
• Data recovery and virus removal: If all the family photos on your PC disappear due to a virus, for example, we organize experts to help recover the data.

If you cause personal injury, property damage or financial loss, this can quickly become expensive. If it's higher than your sum insured, this means that at worst, you'll have to cover the rest yourself under statutory personal liability. To avoid this, the  minimum coverage amount from AXA liability insurance is CHF 5 million , but if you want to be even safer, you can increase this to CHF  10 or CHF 20 million.

No, personal liability insurance is not compulsory, but strongly encouraged. If, for example, you cause an accident involving another family's breadwinner, you will be held liable for that person's loss of earnings plus the cost of the medical treatment. This could ruin you financially unless you have liability insurance.

Parents are of course liable for any underage children. If the little ones "improve" the staircase with wall paintings or accidentally knock over a product presentation in a shop, this is unpleasant, but it's usually covered by the parents' liability insurance. This also applies to situations where godparents or grandparents look after the children.

Team Insurance Services Novartis