سفير تركيا
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It is easy to confuse:
• Insurance protecting the building, including compulsory earthquake insurance for properties within its scope.
• Voluntary insurance for furniture, appliances and other belongings inside the apartment.
This guide explains the distinction from a tenant’s point of view.
Editorial clarification — checked on 8 October 2026: DASK’s compulsory earthquake insurance covers specified earthquake-related damage to the building, not household belongings or every fire or water incident. Voluntary contents cover depends on the policy. Neither holding a policy nor suffering damage guarantees that a claim will be paid.
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1. Building insurance and contents insurance━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Building cover:
- protects the insured parts of the building, subject to the covered risks and limits;
- is primarily relevant to the property owner;
- DASK compulsory earthquake insurance covers damage from an earthquake and specified consequences, including earthquake-related fire, explosion, tsunami and landslide. It is not general fire insurance and excludes movable belongings.
• Contents cover:
- may be useful to a tenant;
- can cover insured furniture, appliances and some personal belongings;
- fire, theft or escape-of-water cover depends on the policy and any agreed extensions.
Check exactly which belongings and risks are insured. A landlord’s building policy should not be assumed to cover your possessions.
A tenant may arrange DASK as the person taking out the policy on the owner’s behalf, but the insured property interest and compensation remain with the entitled owner.
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2. When might contents cover be useful?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Consider it if:
• You have bought furniture and appliances that would be expensive to replace.
• You are concerned about:
- fire;
- a substantial water leak from above;
- theft.
• You want to transfer some of the financial risk in return for a premium.
If your belongings have a low replacement value, you may decide that a separate policy offers less value to you. Compare the cost, cover and amount you could afford to replace yourself.
An older building may prompt closer consideration of risks, but insurance is not a substitute for repairing defects, and existing faults may be excluded.
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3. What to check in a policy━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Read the terms and ask:
• What exactly is insured?
• Which events are excluded?
• What are the overall and individual-item compensation limits?
• Is there a muafiyet (excess or deductible) that you must bear?
• Is damage from a neighbouring apartment’s water leak covered?
• What conditions apply to theft?
- Does cover require evidence of forcible entry?
- Are other ways of entry covered?
• Are the declared contents value and any special-item limits adequate?
Do not assume that all theft claims require a broken door, or that every water leak is insured. Obtain the answer for the policy you are buying.
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4. What affects the premium?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The annual cost can depend on:
• The value of the contents declared.
• The location and characteristics of the property.
• The risks, limits and extensions selected.
• The excess and other policy conditions.
The source compares the premium with the potentially much greater cost of replacing a household’s furniture and appliances after a major incident. That is a way to assess value, not a verified price estimate or a promise of full replacement.
Obtain a current quotation for the actual cover you need.
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5. Damage involving the landlord or neighbours━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
If fire, a water leak or a building defect damages your belongings:
• Notify the insurer in accordance with the policy.
• Record the damage and keep relevant documents.
• Check whether the event falls within your cover and what evidence is required.
A valid covered claim may provide a route to compensation, but payment still depends on the terms and assessment. Insurance does not automatically settle who is legally responsible, or remove every possible dispute with a landlord or neighbour.
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6. Decide on the cover, not just the price━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ordinary contents cover is generally voluntary; check any specific requirement in your agreement.
It may be useful where:
• Your furniture and appliances have a substantial replacement cost.
• You want protection against specified risks that you could not comfortably absorb yourself.
Before buying:
- compare the actual policy wording;
- check exclusions, limits and excesses;
- decide whether the premium is worthwhile for the protection offered.
Official references checked: DASK compulsory earthquake insurance: general conditions and exclusions; DASK questions, including policies arranged by tenants; SEDDK: fire insurance general conditions.
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