What Is Home Insurance?
Home insurance (konut sigortası) covers residential properties against fire, natural hazards, water damage, theft, and liability risks. It is a broad category of cover designed to protect both the physical structure of a property and its contents, and to provide the property owner or tenant with financial protection against liability to neighbours and third parties.
In Türkiye, DASK (Doğal Afet Sigortaları Kurumu — the government-backed natural catastrophe insurance pool) provides mandatory earthquake cover for residential buildings. DASK is a compulsory policy and provides an important foundation — but DASK alone leaves significant gaps that a standard home insurance policy fills. DASK's scope is limited to the building structure for earthquake-related events; it does not cover contents, everyday fire, burst pipes, theft, rental income, or third-party liability.
A comprehensive home insurance policy addresses these gaps. It operates alongside DASK, not as a replacement for it, providing protection for the perils DASK was not designed to cover and extending cover to the contents and liability dimensions that DASK explicitly excludes.
What DASK Covers — and What It Does Not
Understanding DASK's scope precisely is the starting point for any home insurance conversation in Türkiye. Many property owners carry DASK and assume their property is adequately insured — until a claim reveals the gaps.
DASK Covers
- Earthquake damage to the building structure (load-bearing walls, columns, floors, roof)
- Fire, explosion, landslide, and tsunami directly triggered by earthquake
- Residential properties registered in Türkiye
DASK Does NOT Cover
- Contents (furniture, electronics, clothing, valuables)
- Non-earthquake fire (kitchen fire, electrical fault)
- Internal water damage (burst pipes, boiler overflow)
- Theft or burglary
- Loss of rental income
- Third-party liability (neighbour damage, visitor injury)
- Commercial buildings or workplaces
DASK Covers the Structure — Not the Risk
In practice, the perils most likely to affect a residential property on a day-to-day basis — kitchen fires, burst washing machine hoses, leaking pipes, theft — are all outside DASK's scope. Earthquake is a low-frequency but high-severity event; DASK manages the severity risk. Home insurance fills the frequency risk that affects most households every few years.
Home Insurance Coverage
A comprehensive home insurance policy is built from a combination of sections covering the building, contents, and liability risks. The sections relevant to a particular property depend on whether the policyholder is an owner or tenant, and the property's specific risk profile.
Building Cover
Physical structure of the property — walls, floors, ceilings, fixed fixtures, and permanent fittings — for fire, storm, flood (non-earthquake), and vandalism. Sum insured is the rebuild cost (yeniden inşa değeri), not the market value. Under-insurance risk: if the sum insured is below the actual rebuild cost, the average clause (oranlama) reduces the claim proportionally.
Contents Cover
Moveable belongings — furniture, electronics, clothing, kitchen appliances, and personal items. Sum insured reflects the replacement value of all contents. Sub-limits typically apply for valuables such as jewellery, cash, artwork, and portable electronics; high-value items may need to be declared separately.
Internal Water Damage (Dahili Su)
Burst pipes, boiler overflow, leaking washing machine, rain ingress through windows or roof, and water leaking from a neighbour above. One of the most frequently triggered covers in Turkish apartment buildings — particularly relevant in older housing stock where building-wide pipe infrastructure is ageing.
Loss of Rental Income (Kira Kaybı)
If the property becomes uninhabitable due to an insured event, the landlord's lost rental income is covered during the repair period. Typically payable for up to 12 months. Relevant for property owners who let their residential property to tenants.
Alternative Accommodation
For tenants whose rented home becomes uninhabitable due to an insured event — covers the cost of temporary accommodation during the repair period. Particularly relevant for tenants with no alternative family accommodation available.
Neighbour Liability (Komşuluk Mali Sorumluluk)
If the insured property causes damage to an adjacent flat or building — water leak to the downstairs neighbour, fire spreading to the adjacent unit — this section pays the neighbour's repair costs. Critical in high-rise apartment buildings (apartman) where proximity makes damage to others a frequent consequence of an incident in one flat.
Theft & Burglary
Covers theft involving forced entry to the property. Sub-limits typically apply for cash, jewellery, and valuables. Declaration of high-value items at inception is advisable to avoid disputes at the time of a claim. Sneak-theft (entry without forced entry) may require a specific extension.
Glass Breakage
Breakage of fixed glass in windows, doors, and fixed mirrors. Typically available with no deductible or a reduced deductible. A straightforward and frequently claimed cover, particularly in properties with large glazed areas.
Personal Liability
Bodily injury or property damage caused to third parties within or around the home, or by family members. Distinct from neighbour liability — personal liability responds to a broader range of claims, including injury to a visitor in the property and damage caused by children away from the home.
Owner vs Tenant — Who Insures What
The division of insurance responsibility between a property owner and a tenant is a common source of confusion — and of coverage gaps. The starting principle is that the right to insure an interest belongs to the party with that interest: the building is the owner's asset; the contents are the tenant's.
Property Owner (Ev Sahibi)
The owner can insure both the building and its contents. Building cover protects the structural value of the owner's asset — the fabric and permanent fixtures of the property. Contents cover protects the owner's own furnishings if the property is let furnished. Loss of rental income is the extension most directly relevant to landlords — if the property is damaged and untenantable, the ongoing mortgage or ownership costs do not stop whilst repairs are under way. Owners should not assume their tenant has placed contents or liability cover — those are the tenant's responsibility, but gaps can create disputes.
Tenant (Kiracı)
Under DASK (the mandatory earthquake scheme), a tenant may act as the policyholder (sigorta ettiren) and take out DASK on the owner's behalf — the owner is the insured and beneficiary. For voluntary (ihtiyari) home insurance, building cover is tied to the owner's insurable interest and should be placed by the owner; a tenant does not have an insurable interest in the building structure. A tenant's home policy should include: contents cover (for their own belongings), neighbour liability cover (for damage they cause to adjacent properties), alternative accommodation cover (if the property becomes uninhabitable), and tenant's liability (for accidental damage to the landlord's fixtures and fittings). Tenants should check whether the building owner has placed voluntary building cover — if not, the property is uninsured for non-earthquake perils.
Coverage Gap Alert: In Türkiye, it is common for landlords to rely solely on DASK and place no additional building cover. If a non-earthquake event (kitchen fire, flooding, structural failure from water ingress) renders the property uninhabitable, there may be no insurance proceeds to fund repairs — leaving both the landlord and the tenant in a difficult position. Neolife reviews building cover status as part of any tenant policy placement.
Under-Insurance and the Average Clause
Under-insurance (eksik sigorta) is one of the most common and most consequential errors in home insurance. Under Turkish insurance law, if the sum insured is below the actual rebuild value of the property, the average clause (oranlama maddesi) applies at the time of any claim — not just total loss claims.
The oranlama principle reduces the claim payout in the same proportion as the under-insurance. The insurer pays only the fraction of the loss that corresponds to the ratio of the sum insured to the actual value.
Under-Insurance Example (Average Clause)
The remaining TRY 100,000 in this example is borne by the policyholder — not because of an exclusion or a policy breach, but simply because the property was not insured at its full rebuild value. The oranlama clause is a contractual term, not a discretionary adjustment.
Insure at Rebuild Cost — Not Market Value
The sum insured should reflect the rebuild cost: the cost to demolish and reconstruct the property to its current specification at today's construction prices. This is not the same as the market value (which includes land and location premium) or the purchase price. In high-value urban areas, rebuild cost is typically lower than market value; in cities with high construction cost inflation, rebuild costs have risen significantly in recent years. Neolife can assist with indicative rebuild cost estimates and recommends index-linking the sum insured to keep pace with construction cost inflation at each renewal.