In summer, two questions come up most often from clients who have a garden. The first: by morning the robot mower had disappeared from its docking station, together with the garden furniture and the barbecue – does home insurance pay if nobody broke in anywhere? The second: the storm picked up the trampoline and it landed on the neighbour's car or roof – whose insurer is liable, and what happens if the neighbour claims the damage from me? As a broker, I see that in both situations the same basic misunderstanding causes the disappointment: the client thinks that whatever is on their plot is “in the home insurance”. Policy conditions, however, treat items kept in the garden, under the open sky, separately – sometimes they exclude them, sometimes they cover them as an add-on, with a limit and storage requirements. This article puts cover for contents kept outdoors and the liability side next to each other.
- Basic cover typically protects contents inside the locked residential building and outbuildings; policy conditions set different rules for items left in the garden or on the terrace, and several sets of conditions expressly exclude storm, hail and cloudburst damage to contents kept outdoors from the basic package.
- A robot mower or barbecue taken from the garden is not burglary, because nobody has broken into a locked space; such a loss may be covered by an outdoor contents add-on, with a limit and storage requirements (a closed, fenced plot, securing the items) – differing from insurer to insurer.
- If the storm carries the trampoline onto the neighbour's car or roof, under the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) the neighbour's loss is borne by the person whose culpable omission (for example, failing to anchor it) caused it; personal liability cover may pay for this loss, but an extraordinary storm that could not have been averted may also release you from liability.
Where are your contents in the insurer's eyes?
Home insurance conditions typically tie insured contents to the place of cover: the residential building named on the policy and the locked outbuildings and storage rooms belonging to it. The 2025 Home Insurance Guide of MABISZ (the Hungarian insurers' association) specifically points out that “different rules apply to … property kept outdoors” – in other words, the garden, the terrace and an open carport do not automatically get the same protection as the living room. This matters in two respects. For theft, the basic package typically pays for burglary, which under the conditions requires entry into a locked space by force or in a manner specified in the conditions; a lawnmower, bicycle or barbecue taken from an open garden is therefore, under most conditions, not burglary but so-called simple theft, which is usually left out of basic cover. For natural perils, several sets of conditions are unambiguous: a Hungarian home insurance policy wording from 2022 lists among its exclusions the item “cloudburst damage, storm damage and hail or snow-load damage occurring to contents stored outdoors” – which means storm damage to the trampoline, the garden furniture and the parasol. Exactly where the line runs in your contract can be found in the “place of cover”, “insured property” and “exclusions” sections of the conditions.
The outdoor contents add-on: what does it require, what does it pay for?
The add-ons for contents kept outdoors respond to this gap; several insurers now offer them, under different names and with different content. The common logic: the add-on protects items kept on the plot under the open sky and intended for outdoor use – garden furniture, barbecue, trampoline, robot mower, garden tools, play equipment – up to a separate limit against theft and the named natural perils. The limit is either a fixed amount or a set proportion of the sum insured for contents; its size and the deductible vary from insurer to insurer, and the limit typically stays well below the amount for contents kept indoors. The storage requirements are the key point: conditions typically accept the theft risk only for items kept on a fenced plot with a locked gate, often only for equipment that is secured, padlocked or fixed to the building, and in some cases they exclude items left outside overnight or during a longer absence. With a robot mower, it therefore makes a difference whether the docking station can be seen from the street, whether it has PIN-code theft protection and whether it can be tracked from an app – these are not necessarily the insurer's requirements, but they are tools for preventing loss and for proving it. In a storm, add-ons typically pay for items that were secured: a trampoline pegged and anchored to the ground is assessed differently from one simply set down on the grass, and under several sets of conditions a tent garage, a gazebo or a shade sail is excluded from the outset or can only be insured with a separate clause. The map of add-ons shows where this cover sits among the other add-ons.
The storm took the trampoline: your own loss
If the storm wrecked the trampoline or the garden furniture in your own garden, payment depends on three questions. Was there a storm within the meaning of the conditions – Hungarian conditions typically tie the definition of a storm to a wind-speed threshold, which the insurer checks against meteorological data; the article on storm damage covers this in detail. Was the item insured outdoors – that is, does your contract include an outdoor contents add-on, or does basic cover exclude outdoor storm damage? And was the storage requirement met – was the trampoline anchored, was the furniture padlocked? If the trampoline is regularly used anchored to the ground, it is worth documenting this with a photo before any storm: in a claim, the insurer asks what held it in place. Whatever is missing from the garden after the storm must be listed item by item in the claim notification, preferably with a purchase receipt or a photo – the lack of an invoice does not rule out payment, but the estimate is then typically more cautious.
…and the neighbour's loss: liability or force majeure?
If the trampoline landed on the neighbour's car or roof, the neighbour's loss is not a matter for the property section of your home insurance but a question of liability. Under the general rule of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) on non-contractual damage (Section 6:519), anyone who unlawfully causes damage to another is obliged to compensate for it, but is released from liability if they prove that their conduct was not culpable – that is, that they acted as is generally expected in the given situation. The question, then, is whether the damage can be attributed to your fault: with a forecast wind no stronger than a usual summer thunderstorm, a trampoline left unanchored is typically your omission, and in that case personal liability cover – if it is included in your contract – may pay the neighbour's proven loss up to the limit. In the case of an extraordinary storm that broke a decades-old wind record and tore out even a properly anchored trampoline, release from liability may also come into play; this, however, is decided not by the size of the loss but by proving the circumstances, and the dispute may ultimately be one for the courts. In practice, there are two routes for the neighbour's loss: their own home insurance or casco (comprehensive motor insurance) pays it as storm damage, and their insurer may then bring a recourse claim against you under Section 6:468 of the Ptk. if it considers you liable – the article on recourse covers this; or the neighbour claims the loss directly from you, in which case you have to report the claim to your own liability insurer. Two things are worth avoiding: a statement admitting liability made on the spot (conditions typically make this subject to the insurer's consent) and failing to report the claim because “it was the storm anyway”.
What should you do now?
Take out your policy conditions and find the place of cover, the exclusion or add-on for contents kept outdoors, and the definition of entry used for burglary – this will tell you whether the equipment you keep in the garden is protected today. If the value kept in the garden is significant (robot mower, outdoor kitchen, pool equipment, playground), adding the add-on and complying with the storage requirements are the two steps that count in a claim; it is worth measuring the limit against the actual value. Before a storm, preventing loss is both your obligation and in your interest: bringing in light items, anchoring the trampoline and keeping serial numbers and photos are worth more than any clause. In a claim, the primary route for reporting is the insurer's claims line; if you have a question about what the add-on covers or about a case that has got stuck, I help where I can.
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Sources
- MABISZ (Hungarian insurers' association) Home Insurance Guide (20 February 2025) – point 17: different rules for property kept outdoors; point 18: liability insurance
- K&H home insurance customer information and policy conditions (1-10221-23, valid from 1 July 2022) – exclusion: cloudburst, storm, hail and snow-load damage to contents stored outdoors; liability insurance for damage caused in a private capacity (example; varies by insurer)
- Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk., Act V of 2013) Section 6:519 – general rule of liability for damage caused outside a contract (culpability, release from liability); Section 6:468 – the insurer's recourse claim
