Home insurance for a mortgage: what it must cover

If a flat or house secures your mortgage, the bank requires it to be insured. The property is the collateral the bank could use to recover its money if you didn’t repay the loan properly. Property insurance covers the building against agreed risks of damage or destruction. Banks usually also require the insurance payout to be assigned in their favour (vinkulácia).

This insurance is different from payment protection insurance, which covers the borrower’s death, disability, incapacity for work or job loss.

Building, contents and liability

The National Bank of Slovakia distinguishes three types of housing insurance:

Insurance	What it covers	Does the bank require it?
Property (building)	The building and its fixed parts, such as walls, roof, windows, floors and wiring, against agreed risks of damage or destruction	Yes, if the collateral is a flat or house
Household contents	Furnishings and movable items in the flat or house. Borrowed items or a tenant’s belongings may not be covered	Not in the terms we checked
Liability	Agreed damage you cause to others, for example to a neighbour	Not in the terms we checked

Insurers often sell these types together in one package. What matters to the bank is the part that insures the property itself. VÚB states that you can voluntarily include household contents insurance in the contract.

What banks require

Section 4 of the Housing Loan Act allows a bank to require appropriate insurance. However, it must also accept a policy from another provider offering an equivalent level of cover. A cheaper policy therefore won’t be accepted automatically. The bank assesses equivalence.

Examples of bank requirements as of 19 October 2026:

Bank	What it states
VÚB	Insurance of the collateral against damage and destruction up to at least its general value, for the full term of the loan. It can be taken out with any insurer.
Prima banka	An insured sum at least equal to the loan amount, with the payout assigned to the bank. Not required if the collateral is only land.
Tatra banka	Insurance and assignment for a flat or house, not for land. You can choose any insurer.
mBank	Mandatory insurance with the payout assigned to the bank. Land is exempt.
UniCredit Bank	Insurance with assignment is mandatory. Its price list sets a €500 penalty for failing to prove the insurance or assignment.
365.bank	Mandatory insurance with assignment. Domos Kompakt insurance gives a 0.20 pp rate discount.
Slovenská sporiteľňa	The campaign from 5 October 2026, where at least one applicant is aged 35 or under, requires the bank’s DOMOV property insurance as well as loan insurance. We didn’t obtain its detailed cover and assignment requirements.
ČSOB, Fio banka	Property insurance is part of the representative example. Fio banka states in it that you will be required to take out an insurance policy.

Note: requirements change with the banks’ terms and campaigns. The ESIS and loan agreement you receive are what apply to you.

Assignment in practice

Vinkulácia means the right to the insurance payout is assigned in favour of the bank. You can take out the policy yourself or through the bank. Tatra banka, for example, arranges UNIQA and Allianz insurance, and UniCredit Bank offers it at its branches. The loan agreement sets out what document you need to prove the insurance and assignment, and by when.

You need to keep the insurance for as long as the agreement requires. VÚB, for example, requires insurance for the full term of the loan. Changing the assignment, for example when you switch to another insurer, may incur a fee. 365.bank and ČSOB both charge €50 for it.

How to set the insured sum

The insured sum is the maximum amount the insurer pays out for an insured event. Banks set it differently. VÚB wants insurance up to at least the general value of the property, Prima banka at least the loan amount. The bank’s requirement is the minimum for the loan. Whether the insured sum matches the cost of rebuilding needs to be assessed for the specific policy.

If the insured sum is too low, there is a risk of underinsurance. Tatra banka’s property-insurance page explains that the insurer may then reduce the payout proportionally, and also describes annual indexation of the insured sum. If the property details are correct and indexation is chosen, it offers a guarantee that underinsurance won’t be applied. These are the terms of a specific product, not a general rule.

In their representative examples, banks assume property insurance of, for example, €50 a year (Prima banka, ČSOB) or €100 a year (VÚB, Tatra banka). These are assumptions for calculating the APRC, not the price of your policy. That depends on the property, the insured sum and the scope of cover.

Exclusions and limits

Even a policy that meets the bank’s requirements doesn’t cover everything. For example, the product information document for UNIQA’s Domov & bezpečie insurance, linked by Tatra banka, states that:

• fire is a standard risk, while other risks may need to be selected or added,
• exclusions include damage outside the insurance period, damage you knew was about to happen, intentional or grossly negligent damage, and poorly maintained or abandoned buildings,
• excesses and payout limits apply,
• misleading information or breach of obligations can reduce or rule out a payout.

This is an example of one product, not a complete list. It doesn’t mean, for instance, that every policy covers flooding.

What to check

• Whether the policy covers the building, i.e. the property, and not just the contents.
• Whether the insured sum meets the bank’s requirement and matches the cost of rebuilding. Whether it is indexed.
• Which risks are included and which need to be added.
• The excess, payout limits and exclusions.
• Whether the policy is assigned to the bank and how long you need to keep it.
• For a flat, whether and how the whole block is insured through its administrator. Check whether the bank accepts this.
• Whether a specific policy is a condition of a rate discount and what happens if you switch insurer.

You’ll find further steps for buying on the mortgage for a flat and mortgage for a house pages.