Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links to Lemonade and Univé, both approved partners of ours. If you take out a policy through one of those links we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Other insurers named here are not partners and are mentioned without links.
In this guide
What contents cover costs a tenant, from published prices
| Item | Published figure | Per year (our sum) | Source, date checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemonade contents | from €5 a month | from €60 | lemonade.com/nl/en, 3 November 2026 |
| Univé contents, average | €10 to €20 a month | €120 to €240 | unive.nl, 3 November 2026 |
| Univé liability (AVP) added | from €3.63 a month | from €43.56 | unive.nl, 3 November 2026 |
| Univé contents plus AVP | €13.63 to €23.63 a month, before package discount | €163.56 to €283.56 | our sum of the two rows above |
| Univé Buitenshuis module | maximum payout €2,500 per calendar year | premium not published | unive.nl, 3 November 2026 |
Univé’s package discount starts at 2% for two different policies (unive.nl/pakketkorting, checked 31 October 2026). Centraal Beheer and FBTO publish no contents from-price; their premium comes from a calculator. A “from” price is the lowest quote, not yours: run each calculator with the same sum insured and deductible.
Which cover you need depends on how you rent. The insurance chooser asks whether you rent furnished or unfurnished, how long you stay and how you work, and lists contents, liability and other cover for that situation.
💡 Related: liability insurance (AVP) explained, theft outside the home, the contents and liability hub.
Who insures what, when you rent
The landlord insures the building. Structure, roof, fixed installations, the fitted kitchen and bathroom, the pipes in the walls. If a pipe bursts inside the wall and ruins the plasterwork, that is the landlord’s insurer’s problem. You never see that policy and you should not be buying opstal cover — if you own rather than rent, see our separate buildings insurance guide.
You insure your own possessions. FBTO’s short definition: if you can move it, it is inboedel; if it is attached to the house, it is opstal. Furniture, clothing, electronics, curtains, the lawnmower, bikes in the house or shed. FBTO adds a useful edge case — glued-down vinyl, PVC, marmoleum and carpet count as contents, not building (fbto.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
You insure the damage you cause to other people. That is the AVP, a separate product that insurers offer alongside contents cover.
Furnished versus unfurnished, in practice
Dutch rentals are usually described in three ways, and the insurance consequence differs.
Kaal (unfurnished) — bare walls, sometimes bare floors. Everything in it is yours, so your sum insured is the full replacement value of a household.
Gestoffeerd (semi-furnished) — floors, curtains and light fittings, no furniture. You insure your own goods; the floor covering belongs to whoever paid for it, which is where huurdersbelang comes in if that was you.
Gemeubileerd (furnished) — furniture included. You insure less, but not nothing. Add up a laptop, a phone, a tablet, a bike, a wardrobe of clothes, kitchen equipment you bought, a monitor, a bike helmet and a coat, and you are past the point where self-insuring is comfortable.
The furnished case also shifts risk into liability. If you break the landlord’s dining table, that is not a contents claim. Lemonade’s liability cover pays for accidental damage to a rented home and rented furnishings only where fire, explosion or water caused it, and explicitly not for scratched floors or a hole in the wall (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
What a base contents policy covers
Contents policies list the events they cover. Lemonade’s base cover runs to fire, lightning, smoke, explosion, burglary, robbery, vandalism, looting, storm, hail, local heavy rainfall, collision by a vehicle or aircraft, falling objects such as trees or cranes, glass shards, and water damage from burst or blocked pipes, leaking appliances, waterbeds and aquariums (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
Univé’s contents list is structured differently and covers damage from falling and knocking, fire, storm, theft, leakage, smoke and scorching, accidents, and cyber crime, with cover for damage during temporary letting such as Airbnb — while explicitly excluding damage to your things anywhere in the Netherlands outside your home unless you add the Buitenshuis module (maximum €2,500 per calendar year), and excluding accidental damage to mobile electronics unless you add that module too (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
Read those two paragraphs again and the pattern appears: cover for your things away from home is limited in the base policy. At Univé, damage outside the home in the Netherlands needs Buitenshuis; at Lemonade, theft without a break-in, including outside the home, needs Anti-theft.
Check Lemonade's contents cover in English
Calculate Univé's contents premium (Dutch site)
Getting the sum insured right
This is the number that decides whether a claim is paid in full.
Lemonade offers a rule of thumb — home size in m² multiplied by 650 — while saying openly it does not suit everyone, and advises rounding up (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Univé advertises “nooit onderverzekerd” (never underinsured) as a feature of its contents policy (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
Two adjustments internationals should make. Add the equipment you shipped or brought: a good laptop, a camera, an instrument, professional tools. And revisit the figure after any large purchase — the value creeps.
Note also the per-item ceiling, which is separate from the total. Lemonade covers items up to €5,000 each automatically; anything above that must be submitted with photos and proof of value and approved, with category caps of €20,000 for jewellery and €10,000 each for bikes, cameras, mobile electronics, instruments and fashion. FBTO’s basic contents product caps at €2,500 per object, while its full product goes to €200,000 per object (fbto.nl, checked 4 October 2026). If you own one expensive thing, the per-item cap matters more than the total.
Deductibles: the lever you control
- Centraal Beheer: choose €0, €100 or €200; with All Risk added, a €100 deductible always applies (centraalbeheer.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
- FBTO: the basic contents policy carries a fixed €500 deductible; the full policy lets you pick €0, €150 or €300 (fbto.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
- Lemonade: chosen at purchase with €0 available at a higher premium; a claim below the deductible is rejected automatically (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
- Univé: no deductible as standard; a voluntary €100, €250 or €500 lowers the premium (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
Higher deductible, lower premium. The question is whether you would actually file a €300 claim, or whether you would absorb it and only ever claim after a fire or a burglary. If it is the latter, a higher deductible is rational.
What it costs
Lemonade prints starting prices: contents from €5 a month, buildings from €17, both together from €21 (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). At Centraal Beheer, FBTO and Univé your contents premium comes from an online calculator. Univé does give a range: it says the average contents policy costs between €10 and €20 a month, depending mainly on your region, the size of your home and how many people live in it. It also publishes €3.63 a month as a starting price for liability cover alone, and gives package discount from two different policies, up to 10% (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
That is how the pricing works. Centraal Beheer lists the drivers: the type of home, your household composition and the deductible you pick (centraalbeheer.nl, checked 4 October 2026). Lemonade names your property and location, and may factor in the home’s susceptibility to floods, severe weather damage and fires.
The practical consequence: a quoted “from” price tells you almost nothing about your own premium, and comparing two insurers means running both calculators with identical inputs — same sum insured, same deductible, same add-ons.
The clauses that catch renters out
Theft without a break-in. At Lemonade, burglary and robbery are covered, plain theft only with the Anti-theft add-on. Our guide to theft outside the home works through it in detail, alongside the bike theft guide.
Mobile electronics. Lemonade never covers accidental damage to phones, laptops and tablets, even with All Risk. Univé sells accident cover for mobile electronics as a separate module, up to €15,000 per event (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026).
Business equipment. Lemonade, for example, does not cover stuff that belongs to your business. If you freelance from home, Centraal Beheer allows small-scale business inventory within the private policy under conditions — a KvK registration, a maximum of 60m² used for business, no employees, and inventory and stock worth no more than €25,000 (centraalbeheer.nl, checked 4 October 2026). Beyond those conditions you need business cover.
Gradual damage. Lemonade excludes general wear and tear and damage that arises gradually, like mould or rust. Check the same clause in any policy you compare.
Water from outside. At Lemonade, water damage from burst or blocked pipes is covered; groundwater, and flooding from dikes or other primary flood defences, is not. Lemonade defines the local heavy rainfall it does cover precisely: 40mm in 24 hours, 53mm in 48 hours or 67mm in 72 hours.
A twenty-minute setup
- Read the tenancy agreement for a contents or liability requirement.
- List what you own room by room, or film it on your phone including inside cupboards, and store the video off-device.
- Calculate the sum insured, then round up.
- Check the per-item cap against your most expensive single possession.
- Decide on the theft or away-from-home cover based on whether you take a bike, laptop or phone out of the house.
- Consider buying contents and liability together; Univé, for example, gives a package discount.
If you would rather someone arranged it in English, see the expat insurance brokers roundup. For how an English-language insurer handles all of this, read the Lemonade review — and remember that none of this affects your compulsory health cover, which is covered in the health insurance pillar.
Related reading
- Liability insurance (AVP) explained for expats
- Buildings insurance for expat homeowners
- Insurance checklist for your first month
- Dutch home contents and liability insurance
This article explains Dutch contents insurance for tenants and is not insurance advice. Conditions cited come from Lemonade’s FAQ and Policy 2.0 at lemonade.com/nl/en, FBTO’s contents page (fbto.nl/woonverzekering/inboedelverzekering) Centraal Beheer’s contents page (centraalbeheer.nl/verzekeringen/inboedelverzekering) and Univé’s contents, deductible, Buitenshuis and Mobile Electronics pages (unive.nl), all checked 4 October 2026. Lemonade and Univé are affiliate partners; FBTO and Centraal Beheer are named for their published conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need contents insurance if my flat came furnished?
You still need cover, but for less. The landlord's furniture is the landlord's property and the landlord's insurance problem; what you insure is what you own — clothes, electronics, kitchen equipment, a bike, books, sports gear, anything you shipped or bought here. Two things change the maths. First, if you damage the landlord's furniture you are into liability territory, not contents: Lemonade covers accidental damage to a rented home and rented furnishings only where fire, explosion or water caused it (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Second, a laptop, a phone and a bike add up quickly.
Is contents insurance mandatory for tenants in the Netherlands?
Not by law. FBTO states it directly: "Nee, een inboedelverzekering is niet verplicht" (fbto.nl, checked 4 October 2026), while adding that it is often sensible. What can make it obligatory in your case is the tenancy agreement, if it includes a contents or liability requirement. That is a contractual duty, so the consequence of skipping it is a breach of your lease. Read the huurovereenkomst.
What is huurdersbelang and does it apply to me?
Huurdersbelang — renter's interest — is the improvements you or a previous tenant made to the home at your own cost; Centraal Beheer gives a new fence, a luxury kitchen or solar panels as examples. Centraal Beheer includes huurdersbelang as standard in its contents policy, but only where you have to pay for the damage yourself and the landlord's buildings insurance does not reimburse it (centraalbeheer.nl, checked 4 October 2026). Lemonade covers such improvements under renter's interest up to €5,000 per item within the base contents policy, with anything above that needing Extra Coverage in the "Other" category, capped at €20,000 (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
How much cover should I take out?
There is no exact shortcut. Lemonade suggests multiplying the size of your home in m² by 650 as a common rule of thumb, while saying that it does not fit everyone, and recommends rounding up when in doubt (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Univé advertises "nooit onderverzekerd" (never underinsured) for its contents policy (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026). The useful mental test: if everything in the flat burned tonight, what would replacing it cost at today's prices? Include the equipment you shipped from home.
Are my things covered when I move house?
Only within narrow limits, and this is a real gap for people who move often. Lemonade covers items normally kept at your home, balcony, terrace, garage, shed or a storage unit in your building — not public or unsecured areas, and not an external storage facility, except for up to seven days while moving to a new home in the Netherlands. It also cannot change the address on an active policy: you cancel and create a new one, and belongings stay insured at both addresses for up to one month (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Lemonade does not cover items you handed over to someone else, and gives damage during an apartment move as an example.
Does contents insurance cover my housemates?
No. Housemates each need their own policy. Lemonade covers your partner, children and other relatives living with you if declared at sign-up, and in a house-share covers only your personal belongings and your share of anything jointly owned — and it cannot issue a policy at all if you live with more than three other housemates (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). If you are in a five-person house, price individual policies and be precise about who owns the sofa.