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. Government and consumer-body sources are linked plainly.
In this guide
The first-month bundle in one sum
| Cover | Per month | Basis, date checked |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance (compulsory) | €157 | average basic premium 2026, Rijksoverheid, 30 October 2026 |
| Liability (AVP) | from €3.63 | Univé starting price, unive.nl, 3 November 2026 |
| Contents | from €5 | Lemonade starting price, lemonade.com/nl/en, 3 November 2026 |
| Total | about €165.63 | our sum: an average for health, floors for the other two |
On top of the health premium comes the compulsory deductible (eigen risico) of €385 a year in 2026; for 2027 it is €400, set by ministerial regulation (Regeling verplicht eigen risico Zvw 2027, Staatscourant 2026, 34372). Zorgtoeslag can bring the health cost down if your income is low enough; see the zorgtoeslag guide.
Two tools turn this into your own list. The insurance chooser asks how long you stay, how you work, whether you already have Dutch health insurance and how you live, and lists the cover for that situation. The health insurance wizard narrows the basic policy down by deductible, add-ons and what matters most to you.
The sections below separate three categories: legally mandatory, genuinely sensible, and safely postponed.
💡 Related: your first 30 days in the Netherlands, liability insurance (AVP) explained, contents insurance for renters.
Mandatory: health insurance, and motor insurance if you drive
Health insurance (zorgverzekering). Government.nl is unambiguous: “Every person who lives or works in the Netherlands is legally obliged to take out standard health insurance to cover the cost of, for example, consulting a general practitioner, hospital treatment and prescription medication. Additional health insurance is not compulsory” (government.nl, checked 9 October 2026).
The timing rule matters. You must take out Dutch health insurance as quickly as possible and no later than four months after arriving, with cover starting from the day you arrived. Take it out later than four months and you are not insured retroactively: you pay premiums only from the date you took the policy out, but you also carry the cost of any care you received in the gap. The CAK checks that everyone has cover, and you may be fined for waiting too long (government.nl, checked 9 October 2026).
The exception worth knowing: if your employer is outside the Netherlands, cover from the country you came from can be sufficient, subject to rules the SVB explains; people working solely for an EU institution fall under the EU’s Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme instead.
Which insurer to choose is a separate exercise, and one worth doing properly — start with our Dutch health insurance pillar.
Motor insurance. If you own a car or a moped, third-party motor liability (WA) is compulsory. It is a separate product from a private liability policy: a private liability policy does not cover damage caused with a motor vehicle. If you drove claim-free abroad, ask about your no-claim years before you buy: Univé, for one, says no-claim years built up abroad are valid in the Netherlands in most cases, provided you can prove them with a statement from your foreign insurer (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026). Our car insurance guide covers the rest.
Smart: liability, then contents
Private liability (AVP). Not legally required. The Consumentenbond states plainly that an AVP is “niet wettelijk verplicht” and recommends one anyway, because a personal injury claim can leave you carrying debt for life (consumentenbond.nl, checked 9 October 2026). It advises a sum insured of at least €1.25 million, often better €2.5 million, preferably with no deductible.
The price makes the decision easy. The Consumentenbond puts single-person cover at €3.50 to €5 a month; Univé publishes a starting price of €3.63 a month for up to €2.5 million of worldwide cover (unive.nl, checked 31 October 2026), with no standard deductible (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026). Full detail in our AVP guide.
Contents (inboedel). Also voluntary — the Consumentenbond states “Een inboedelverzekering is niet verplicht, maar we raden hem wel aan” (consumentenbond.nl, checked 9 October 2026) — and the entry price is low: Lemonade publishes contents cover from €5 a month (lemonade.com/nl/en, checked 9 October 2026).
Timing here is genuinely flexible. In week one, with two suitcases, there is little to insure. Once you have furnished a flat, bought a bike and shipped the rest of your belongings over, the replacement value adds up quickly. Set a calendar reminder for month three rather than deciding once and forgetting. Our renters’ contents guide covers how to size it.
Read your tenancy agreement. A landlord can require contents or liability cover in the contract. That converts a “smart” item into a “mandatory” one for you specifically.
Compare contents and liability cover in English
Calculate Univé's liability premium (Dutch site)
What each policy actually costs you a month
Published starting prices, checked on 9 October 2026, so you can see the whole bundle at once rather than one quote at a time.
| Cover | Compulsory? | Published starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Health (basisverzekering) | Yes, for residents | Premiums set annually per insurer; compare in November |
| Private liability (AVP) | No | €3.50–€5 a month for one person (consumentenbond.nl); €3.63 at Univé (unive.nl, checked 31 October 2026) |
| Contents (inboedel) | No | From €5 a month at Lemonade (lemonade.com/nl/en) |
| Buildings (opstal) | Lender requirement for owners | From €17 a month at Lemonade; other insurers quote per property |
| Buildings + contents | — | From €21 a month at Lemonade |
| Bike | No | From €2.45 a month at Univé (unive.nl) |
| Annual travel | No | From €1.79 a month at Univé (unive.nl) |
Two health warnings about that table. The “from” figures are floors, not quotes: premiums vary by postcode, household, sum insured, deductible and add-ons, and Univé publishes no starting price for contents cover, sending you to a calculator instead — it does put the average contents premium at €10 to €20 a month (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026). And the health row is deliberately blank, because premiums for the coming year are published in November and any number here would be out of date by the time you read it.
The useful conclusion is the shape rather than the digits: at the published floors, liability plus contents starts at just under €9 a month (€3.63 plus €5), against risks that can run far higher.
Conditional: buildings insurance, if you bought
Buildings cover only applies if you own. It is not required by law, but the Consumentenbond states that the mortgage lender makes it compulsory (consumentenbond.nl, checked 9 October 2026). Ask your lender from which date the cover must run and arrange it before the transfer at the notaris.
If you bought an apartment, the buildings cover can be arranged collectively by the Vereniging van Eigenaren — read the VvE documents before buying anything yourself. The buildings insurance guide covers the whole case.
Optional: worth pricing, not worth rushing
Theft cover away from home. If you cycle to work with a laptop, this is closer to “smart” than “optional” — but it is an add-on rather than a policy, and it belongs to the contents decision rather than a separate purchase. See theft outside your home.
Bike insurance. Depends entirely on what you ride. A cheap second-hand city bike may not be worth insuring; an expensive e-bike is a different conversation. Univé’s bike insurance, for example, starts from €2.45 a month and pays back the purchase price if a new bike is stolen or written off in the first three years; theft is covered only if the bike was locked with the required ART-approved two-star lock (two for an e-bike or a bike of €3,500 or more) (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026). Our cycling guide covers locks, registration and cover.
Travel insurance. Worth checking what you already hold, for example through a credit card, before buying a Dutch policy. Not urgent in week one unless a trip is booked. As a reference point, Univé’s annual travel policy starts from €1.79 a month, covers trips of up to 60 days within Europe as standard, with longer trips (up to 180 days) and worldwide cover as options (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026). Our travel versus health insurance guide explains how it sits next to your health policy.
Legal expenses insurance (rechtsbijstand). Useful in disputes with landlords and employers; not a first-month purchase. Note that a liability policy can already include legal defence against a claim: Lemonade’s policy says it will provide legal defence at its own expense within the liability cover, and it sells a broader legal protection add-on, provided by its partner ARAG, covering up to €15,000 or €30,000 depending on the plan (lemonade.com/nl/en, checked 9 October 2026). A standalone policy is built from modules: Univé’s legal expenses insurance has basic covers for traffic and vehicles and for consumer, purchase and housing conflicts, with work and salary as an add-on; there is no deductible, but it does not take on conflicts worth less than €175 except in categories such as housing, work and traffic, and you pay €250 if you go to court with a lawyer of your own choosing (unive.nl, checked 30 September 2026).
Supplementary health modules. Compare in November for the following year, when premiums are published, rather than guessing in your first fortnight.
Skip, for now
- A second policy for a risk already covered. Check whether a bank account, credit card or employer scheme already gives you travel or legal cover.
- Insurance sold to you in the arrival week by whoever is helping you relocate, without a comparison. It may be fine; it may be a package with a fee attached. Check what it costs against a direct quote.
- Cover for possessions you have not shipped yet. Insure the flat you actually have.
The order to do it in
- Register with the gemeente within 5 days of arrival if you will live here for longer than 4 months, and get your BSN (government.nl). See your first 30 days.
- Take out health insurance immediately, backdated to arrival. Do not use the four months as a deadline; use it as a safety net.
- Buy liability cover in the same week you sign a tenancy. A few euros a month against an uncapped risk.
- Search the tenancy agreement for insurance obligations.
- Diary a contents review for month three, once the flat is furnished and you know what you own.
- If you bought a property, arrange buildings cover before completion — or verify what the VvE already holds.
Two rules keep the whole exercise honest: never buy cover you cannot read, and never buy cover for a risk you cannot describe. If you cannot read Dutch policy conditions, an English-language insurer such as Lemonade or an English-speaking broker solves the first problem — and the comparison with traditional Dutch insurers sets out what you trade away for that.
Related reading
- Liability insurance (AVP) explained for expats
- Contents insurance for renters in the Netherlands
- How to file an insurance claim in the Netherlands
- Dutch home contents and liability insurance
This checklist is general information, not insurance or legal advice. Statements are taken from Government.nl on compulsory standard health insurance and its guidance for people coming to live or work here, Consumentenbond on liability insurance and on the insurances a homeowner needs, FBTO (fbto.nl/woonverzekering/inboedelverzekering), and Lemonade’s pages at lemonade.com/nl/en, all checked 9 October 2026, and Univé’s liability, contents, car, bike, travel and legal expenses pages (unive.nl), checked 30 September and 9 October 2026. Lemonade and Univé are affiliate partners of ours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which insurance is actually compulsory in the Netherlands?
Health insurance, and motor insurance if you own a vehicle. Government.nl states that "Every person who lives or works in the Netherlands is legally obliged to take out standard health insurance", and that additional health insurance is not compulsory (government.nl, checked 9 October 2026). Everything else in the household bundle — contents, liability, legal expenses, travel — is voluntary as a matter of law. Buildings insurance is the odd case: not required by statute, but required by your mortgage lender, as the Consumentenbond states (consumentenbond.nl, checked 9 October 2026).
How long do I have to arrange health insurance?
Four months, with cover backdated to your arrival. Government.nl states you must take out Dutch health insurance as quickly as possible and no later than four months after arriving, with coverage from the day you arrive; if you take it out after four months you are not insured retroactively and you pay for care received in the gap yourself. The CAK checks that everyone in the Netherlands has health insurance and you may be fined if you wait too long (government.nl, checked 9 October 2026). This applies even if you still hold a policy in your home country.
Do I need Dutch health insurance if my employer is abroad?
Possibly not, and this is the main exception. Government.nl states you are required to take out health insurance with a Dutch insurer even if you have medical cover in the country you came from, with one exception: if your employer is outside the Netherlands, the insurance in the country you came from is enough — subject to rules, with the SVB as the source for working for an employer based outside the Netherlands. People working solely for an EU institution are covered by the EU's Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme instead (government.nl, checked 9 October 2026).
What can I skip in the first month?
Anything that duplicates cover you already hold or that insures a risk you do not yet run. Supplementary health modules can wait until you know your actual healthcare use. Travel insurance can wait until a trip is booked, though check whether a policy you already hold covers you as a Dutch resident. Legal expenses insurance and standalone bike insurance are worth pricing once you have a bike and a tenancy, not on day three. What should not wait: health insurance, because the clock is running, and liability cover, because it costs a few euros a month for a risk with no upper limit.
Is liability or contents insurance required by my landlord?
Sometimes, and it is a contractual matter rather than a legal one. Neither an aansprakelijkheidsverzekering nor an inboedelverzekering is required by Dutch law — the Consumentenbond says the AVP is "niet wettelijk verplicht" and that a contents policy is "niet verplicht" (consumentenbond.nl, checked 9 October 2026). Tenancy agreements differ, though, and a landlord or agency can make one or both a condition of the contract. Search your huurovereenkomst for "aansprakelijkheid" and "inboedel" before deciding.
Can I arrange all of this in English?
Health insurance, largely — several Dutch health insurers, such as Menzis and a.s.r., publish English information, although policy correspondence is often in Dutch. Home and liability cover in English is narrower: Lemonade has a full English version of its Dutch site, including its FAQ, and sells its policies online and in its app (lemonade.com/nl/en, checked 9 October 2026), while FBTO and Univé publish their contents and liability product pages in Dutch (checked 9 October 2026). An English-speaking broker is the other route.