Personal liability insurance protects you against damage that you cause to someone else. For example, if you drop someone’s phone, if your dog bites someone or if you bump into a passer-by as a cyclist.
The research editors of RTL Nieuws spoke with victims whose lives were disrupted after an accident. They receive little or no reimbursement for their costs because the person who caused the damage is uninsured.
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Hundreds of problems
Such scenarios occur regularly. Every week, questions are received at the Juridisch Loket throughout the country. Both for people who have caused damage and who are uninsured, as well as for people who have to deal with damage caused by an uninsured counterparty. “On an annual basis, there are at least a few hundred at the Juridisch Loket,” says lawyer Jordy Tschur.
Insurers also confirm this picture. Legal assistance insurer ARAG often assists people who run into problems after damage caused by an uninsured counterparty. “This really happens regularly. It is a structural problem,” says a spokesperson.
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No liability insurance
Do not confuse liability insurance for private individuals with third-party liability insurance that you are obliged to take out as a motorist. Such insurance protects you against damage that you cause to your car. Liability insurance is not compulsory – unlike third-party liability insurance.
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ignorance
Liability insurance is not expensive: as a single person you already have one for a few euros per month. Yet about 640,000 Dutch households do not have insurance, according to figures from market research agency Ipsos.
“I think it is largely ignorance,” says Eddy Bauw professor of liability law. The figures from Ipsos show that especially young people do not take out liability insurance. Sometimes students living away from home are co-insured under their parents’ insurance. But if you stop studying, you have to make a claim under your own insurance in the event of damage.
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“Liability insurance is often included in a package with home contents insurance that you take out when you get your own house for the first time. As a young person you usually don’t have your own house yet”, Bauw thinks, “so you may not even know it exists from liability insurance.”
Not insured
Nadia van den Broek knows better than anyone what problems the lack of liability insurance can lead to. In 2019, she was hit by another cyclist on her bicycle, resulting in brain injury. The impact was significant not only physically, but also financially: the person who hit her turned out to be uninsured. Nadia tells her story in this video:
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In the event of an accident with injury, health insurance covers hospital costs, but damage usually occurs in more areas. Missed working days, forced help in the house, or adjustments to your home, for example. If someone incurs such costs as a result of your actions, they can recover this from you. If you do not have liability insurance, you will have to pay for the damage yourself.
Towering Damage
“In the case of personal injury, it can really run into the thousands,” says Professor Bauw. “For example, if you hit a medical student and he or she becomes incapacitated for work, in extreme cases you may be held responsible for all the money that someone would have earned during a career as a doctor.”
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Most people can’t just cough up that kind of money. “It is often precisely the people with little money who omit such insurance,” says personal injury expert Rini Withagen.
“And you can’t take people’s welfare benefits, even if they are responsible for the damage done. It’s the well-known saying: you can’t pluck from a bald chicken.”
‘Require insurance’
So if you have damage caused by someone without liability insurance – and that person cannot pay for the damage out of their own pocket – there is little you can do. “In accidents involving a motor vehicle, you can still go to the Motor Traffic Guarantee Fund,” says Withagen, “and in the case of violent crimes, go to the Compensation Fund.” But don’t these matters apply?
The party with damage therefore bears the costs, but the impact can also be large for the liable party. If a judge determines that you as the causer of the damage are indeed responsible for the costs incurred by the victim, your guilt can continue to haunt you.
Even if you don’t have any money, the judge’s ruling can remain valid for up to twenty years. “For example, after ten years, the party that has suffered damage can still engage a bailiff, if you then have a higher income or savings,” says Jordy Tschur of the Juridisch Loket.
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Personal injury lawyer Gerben Janson argues for mandatory liability insurance. “After all, we also have mandatory car insurance. In the event of damage, it would be easier for all parties if everyone had liability insurance.”
But, he emphasizes: “If you make it mandatory, you run the risk that premiums will rise sharply. This is because more people have such insurance, and insurers therefore have to pay out more often.”
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