I live in an apartment in Portugal. What insurance do I actually need?
The condominium has a policy. You have a policy. Almost nobody can say where one ends and the other begins — until water comes through a ceiling and two insurers start pointing at each other. This page draws the line, in English, before that happens.
The one distinction that matters
A Portuguese apartment building is divided into partes comuns — the common parts — and frações autónomas, the individual fractions people own. The condominium insures the first. You insure the second. Everything confusing about apartment insurance in Portugal comes from the fact that the boundary between them is not where most owners assume it is.
The condominium policy
- Structure, roof, facade, foundations.
- Stairwells, lifts, entrance halls, corridors.
- Common pipework, shared installations, communal areas.
- Arranged by the administrator and paid from the condominium budget.
- Frequently insured for a sum set years ago and never revised.
Your own policy
- Everything inside your front door.
- Kitchens, bathrooms, fitted wardrobes, flooring, internal walls.
- Your furniture, appliances, electronics and valuables.
- Your personal and family liability.
- Damage your apartment causes to a neighbour’s.
The grey areas
- Windows, terraces and balconies — treated differently building to building.
- Pipework inside your walls versus the riser it joins.
- Improvements a previous owner made to the fraction.
- Parking spaces and storage rooms, which may be separate fractions.
- Settled by the condominium’s constitutive title, not by assumption.
If you also sit on the condominium’s side of this — as an owner-administrator or on the committee — the building policy itself is covered on our condominium insurance page.
What the condominium policy will not do for you
This is the point at which most apartment owners in Portugal discover they are underinsured, and it is almost always the same discovery.
- It does not cover your contents. Not your furniture, not your television, not your jewellery. A building policy insures a building. We wrote about the consequences: why the condominium policy does not cover your things.
- It does not cover your liability. If your bathroom leaks into the apartment below, that is your claim, not the building’s.
- It may not cover your improvements. A renovated kitchen, new flooring, air conditioning and fitted units are usually yours to insure.
- Its sum insured may be old. Buildings insured at values fixed a decade ago are common, and in a total loss every owner shares the shortfall proportionally.
- It does not pay for alternative accommodation. Where that cover exists, it typically sits in the owner’s own policy.
Water damage: the claim that involves everyone
Vertical living means shared plumbing and shared consequences. The overwhelming majority of apartment claims in Portugal involve water, and they are the claims most likely to turn into a dispute — because three parties are usually involved and each of them has a different insurer.
Your pipe, their ceiling
Damage you cause below is dealt with through your liability and water damage cover, not the condominium’s.
Their pipe, your ceiling
You claim from your own policy or pursue the neighbour. Having your own cover is what stops you waiting on someone else’s goodwill.
The common riser
A failure in shared pipework is the condominium’s claim — if the building policy is in force and adequate.
Nobody knows whose pipe it was
The common case. It is settled by investigation, and it takes longer than anyone wants.
How these claims run in practice, and what to photograph on day one: the water damage claim, step by step. If flooding rather than plumbing is your concern, see flood insurance in Portugal.
What an apartment policy usually includes
- The private fraction. Your part of the building, insured on a rebuild basis appropriate to an apartment rather than to a whole house.
- Contents. Furnishings and belongings, with separate sub-limits for jewellery, watches, art and cash.
- Water damage. Escape of water within your fraction, and the damage it causes elsewhere in the building.
- Personal and family liability. Third-party claims arising from your household. More on how family liability works.
- Theft. Often with conditions about locks and, on ground and first floors, about grilles or shutters.
- Fire, storm and impact. Including damage to your fraction from events affecting the building.
- Seismic cover. A distinct item, and not always present. In an apartment block it is worth confirming that both the building policy and yours include it — see earthquake cover.
- Alternative accommodation. Where included, the cost of somewhere to live while your apartment is repaired.
Everything on this page is general guidance. Sub-limits, excesses, occupancy conditions and exclusions differ between insurers and between policies, and the wording of your own policy is what decides a claim.
Practical points for international owners
Ask for the condominium policy
The administrator should provide the schedule. Read what it insures and for how much before deciding what you need on top.
Check the constitutive title
The título constitutivo defines what your fraction actually is, including terraces, storage and parking.
Mortgage policies are a floor, not a ceiling
A bank-arranged policy typically protects the bank’s interest. You can usually insure elsewhere.
High-value apartments
Lisbon and Cascais apartments frequently exceed standard contents limits. Here is what changes.
Empty part of the year
A city apartment used seasonally raises occupancy questions — see second home insurance.
Letting it out
Short-term or long-term letting is a different contract. Start at landlord insurance.
What we need to prepare your quote
- The apartment. Address or postcode, floor, approximate area, year built, and how many fractions are in the building.
- What is yours. Terrace, balcony, parking space, storage room — and whether they are part of your fraction.
- Improvements. Any renovation you or a previous owner made that a standard rebuild figure would not reflect.
- Contents value. A rough total, plus anything individually valuable enough to list.
- The condominium policy. If you can get the schedule from the administrator, we will read it and quote around it rather than over it.
You get a written comparison within 24 hours, showing what each insurer covers inside your fraction, where the liability limits sit, and what is left to the building policy.
Get your apartment insurance quote
Tell us about the apartment and, if you have it, what the condominium policy already covers. We will quote the gap rather than duplicate the building.
By sending this form you agree to us using your details to prepare and discuss your quote, in line with our privacy policy. We never sell your data. Adler & Rochefort is a trading name of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., registered with the ASF under no. 425591790/3.
Thank you
Your request has been received. Our team will get back to you within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need my own insurance if the condominium already has a policy?
In practice, yes. The condominium policy insures the building and the common parts. It does not insure your contents, your improvements or your personal liability, and those are usually the losses an owner actually feels.
Who pays when my bathroom leaks into the apartment below?
Ordinarily this runs through your own policy, via water damage and liability cover, rather than through the condominium. It is one of the clearest reasons for an apartment owner to hold their own contract.
Is home insurance compulsory for an apartment in Portugal?
Fire cover for the building is a legal requirement for properties in a condominium regime in Portugal, and lenders require insurance for mortgaged property. Cover beyond that — contents, liability, water damage — is your choice, and it is where most of the practical protection lives.
Are my balcony and terrace covered by the building or by me?
It depends on the building’s constitutive title, which defines the boundaries of each fraction. Some balconies are private, some are common parts with private use. We check the title rather than guessing.
What if the condominium is underinsured?
It is common: building sums insured are often set once and left. In a major loss the shortfall is shared proportionally between owners, which can mean a significant call on you personally. Raising it at the assembly is worth doing before anything happens.
Does an apartment policy include earthquake cover?
Not automatically. Seismic cover is a separate item in Portuguese policies. In an apartment it is worth confirming that the condominium policy and your own both include it, since a building can be seismically damaged as a whole.
Can I insure an apartment I do not live in permanently?
Yes, but the occupancy pattern must be declared, and unoccupied periods usually carry their own conditions. If the apartment is empty for much of the year, our second home and unoccupied property pages cover that specifically.
I bought with a Portuguese mortgage. Am I tied to the bank’s policy?
Generally not. Your lender requires that the property is insured to an acceptable standard, not that the policy is theirs. Owners switch away from bank-arranged cover regularly and we handle the process for you.
Related cover
Read before you buy
- Why the condominium policy does not cover your contents
- Insuring a high-value apartment in Lisbon or Cascais
- How a water damage claim actually runs in Portugal
- Insured values that stopped being true years ago
- Family liability cover, and what it is really for
- What a Portuguese multi-risk policy is made of
Adler & Rochefort is a commercial brand of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., registered with the ASF under no. 425591790/3. General guidance only; conditions, premiums, sub-limits and exclusions vary by insurer, by policy wording and by property. Nothing on this page is a statement of what any particular policy covers, and nothing on it is legal or tax advice.