You need holiday home insurance if you are using your Spanish property as a second or holiday home or if you let it for investment income. To protect your investment and minimise your liability, it is essential to ensure that you are suitably protected. This can be difficult as most insurers refuse to provide holiday home insurance for properties in Spain due to the fact that they can be left unoccupied for long periods, in addition to the risk that a holiday-maker could sustain an injury.

If you do obtain holiday home insurance cover, this may only be available at a substantial premium and may require inconvenient security requirements: for example turning off the electricity, water and draining down the heating system when your property is left unoccupied.

For these reasons it is essential that, when choosing an insurance policy for your house in Spain, you fully understand what is covered. If the policy is written in Spanish, and subject to Spanish law, this can often lead to complications, especially in the event of a claim.