In this guide
If your Dutch is limited, the hardest part of home insurance here is the policy conditions: the part that decides whether a claim is paid.
Lemonade is one answer to that: a Dutch-licensed insurer whose Netherlands site, sign-up and policy document are available in English. This review is about what its published conditions actually say, and where they are narrower than you would expect.
Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links to Lemonade and one to 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. The premium is the same as going direct, and every Lemonade fact below comes from Lemonade’s own published pages.
💡 Related: liability insurance (AVP) explained, contents insurance for renters, the contents and liability hub.
What Lemonade actually sells here
Three products, in the company’s own naming (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026):
Contents (inboedel), from €5 a month. Your movable possessions: furniture, clothes, electronics, bikes kept indoors, kitchen equipment.
Buildings (opstal), from €17 a month. The structure of a house you own: walls, roof, floors, fixed kitchen and bathroom, the pipes, plus fences, patios, terraces, a pool or fixed hot tub, and solar panels fixed to the home. Outbuildings such as a garage or shed are covered if they are under 100m² and within 100 metres of the house.
Buildings and contents together, from €21 a month.
Private liability (AVP) sits alongside these rather than on its own. The three quote paths on Lemonade’s own homepage are labelled contents_and_liability, buildings_and_liability and buildings_contents_and_liability. If you want an AVP and nothing else, those paths do not offer it. The Consumentenbond notes the same limit for the insurer comparison it links to: no standalone AVP there, only in combination with contents and/or buildings cover (consumentenbond.nl, retrieved 4 October 2026).
Those “from” prices are starting points. Lemonade states that premiums are tailored to each policyholder using factors including your property and location, and may take account of the home’s susceptibility to floods, severe weather damage and fires.
Check Lemonade's cover and price for your postcode
The English part includes the policy itself
Lemonade’s differentiator is Policy 2.0, which it calls the world’s first open source insurance policy: a simplified, plain-language policy document, published openly and in English on its Dutch site (lemonade.com/nl/en/policy-two, retrieved 4 October 2026).
You can read the whole specimen before you buy. It says things like “We cover the food in your refrigerator and freezer, if it has gone bad due to a power outage” and “Damages not mentioned above, such as ‘I lost it,’ ‘my dog ate it,’ ‘I dropped my phone’ … aren’t covered.” That plain English is the main reason to consider Lemonade if your Dutch is not good enough to argue about a Dutch policy wording.
One caveat. The specimen shows one example policy’s amounts (€20,000 per event, €1,250,000 liability, a €100 deductible), not a universal set: your own limits are what you pick, and Lemonade allows liability cover up to €2.5 million.
What the base policy covers — and the gap most people miss
The base contents cover runs on named perils: fire, lightning, smoke, explosion, burglary, robbery, vandalism, looting, storm, hail, local heavy rainfall, collision by a vehicle or aircraft, falling objects, glass shards, and water damage from burst or blocked pipes, leaking appliances, waterbeds and aquariums (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
Then comes the distinction to read carefully. Lemonade separates burglary (forced entry), robbery (force or threats) and theft (no signs of either). The first two are in the base policy. The third is not.
So: laptop taken in a break-in, covered. Laptop taken from the table in a café, not covered unless you bought the Anti-theft add-on. Bike stolen from your basement storage, covered. Bike stolen from the rack outside Utrecht Centraal, add-on only — and even then, only if it was locked with an ART-approved lock of two stars or higher, with the e-bike battery removed, and with road bikes, ATBs, Urban Arrow e-bikes and fatbikes locked to a fixed object or kept in an enclosed space. E-bikes with a top speed above 25 km/h are not covered at all, and fatbikes are not available to new policyholders since May 2024.
The other permanent gap: mobile electronics are never covered against accidental damage, not even with the All Risk add-on. Drop your phone, spill coffee on your laptop keyboard, and that is your problem. Lemonade says this in its FAQ and in Policy 2.0.
Our separate guide on theft outside the home goes through how the Dutch market handles this generally, and the cycling and bike theft guide covers locks and police reports.
The add-ons, and what they cost you in cover terms
- Anti-theft — theft without break-in, including bikes, phones, laptops and tablets outside the home. Lemonade’s policy covers you outside the home while temporarily travelling anywhere in the world, for trips under three months.
- All Risk — sudden and unexpected damage you cause yourself, excluding mobile electronics, wear and tear, improper cleaning and damage by pets or insects.
- Glass Breakage — accidental glass breakage in the home; on a buildings policy up to €50,000 per event. Mirrors and televisions are excluded here and fall under All Risk instead.
- Temporary accommodation — hotel and living costs if a covered event makes the home uninhabitable. Not for utility outages and not for infestations.
- Legal protection — provided by ARAG SE, up to €15,000 or €30,000 depending on plan, with a 24/7 emergency line.
Add-ons can be switched on and off in the app, with the premium adjusting in real time.
Limits worth knowing before you claim
€5,000 per item, automatically. Anything worth more must be submitted for Extra Coverage with photos and proof of value, and approved by Lemonade’s team. Category caps then apply: jewellery €20,000, bikes €10,000, cameras and lenses €10,000, mobile electronics €10,000, musical instruments €10,000, fashion items €10,000, “other” €20,000, with a €50,000 total across all categories.
Cash is covered to €600 per event, and only from burglary or fire inside the home.
Location. Cover applies to things normally kept at your home, balcony, terrace, garage, shed or a storage unit in your building — not common or unprotected areas, and not a holiday home, office or external storage facility. The one exception is a seven-day allowance for a storage facility while moving to a new home in the Netherlands.
Payout basis. Lemonade pays 100% replacement cost: repair or replace, whichever is lower, at the price of a new item of the same make and model, with no deduction for age. A second-hand item is replaced with a comparable second-hand one. When you compare insurers, check how each one values older possessions.
Deductible. You choose it at purchase, and €0 is an option at a higher premium. Buildings policies always carry a fixed €250 storm deductible on top. A claim below your deductible is rejected automatically.
The downsides
No phone sales, and a business-hours mailbox. Sign-up is app or website only; service is email, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00. If your instinct is to call an insurer, this will annoy you.
Household changes mean a new policy. You cannot add or remove a partner on an active policy, and you cannot change the address either. Both are handled by cancelling and creating a new policy — easy in the app, but it resets your premium to whatever the current price is. Lemonade explicitly warns prices change over time.
Housemate rules. Housemates are never co-insured, and Lemonade cannot offer a policy at all if you live with more than three other housemates. A five-person shared house in Amsterdam is simply outside the product.
Buildings is narrow. Freeholders only; no leaseholders, no apartments, no monuments, no houseboats. If you own an apartment in a VvE, this product is not for your building — see our buildings insurance guide for what applies instead.
Exclusions that matter in this country. Damage from earthquakes, landslides, groundwater and flooding from dikes or other primary flood defences is out. Local heavy rainfall is in, defined as 40mm in 24 hours, 53mm in 48 hours or 67mm in 72 hours, including overflow of non-primary defences such as canals and quays.
Missed payment voids cover. Lemonade states that if you miss a premium payment your coverage is voided from that point, with 14 days to pay before the policy is cancelled.
Where Lemonade fits
If you rent, want cover written in a language you can actually read, and are comfortable with an app-only relationship, Lemonade is a straightforward fit — provided you price the Anti-theft add-on rather than assuming the base policy protects your bike and laptop on the street. Its liability cover goes up to a €2.5 million maximum; the Consumentenbond advises at least €1.25 million and calls €2.5 million often the better choice (consumentenbond.nl, retrieved 4 October 2026).
If you want to phone someone, live in a big shared house, own an apartment, or need accidental-damage cover for a laptop, look elsewhere — Univé, for example, sells accidental-damage cover for phones and laptops as a Mobile Electronics add-on to its Dutch-language contents policy (unive.nl, checked 4 October 2026). Our comparison with Centraal Beheer, FBTO and Univé sets the differences side by side, and if you would rather have someone arrange it for you, the insurance brokers roundup covers who works in English.
None of this touches your health cover, which is a legal obligation on a separate track — see the Dutch health insurance pillar.
See Lemonade's current prices and conditions
Related reading
- Liability insurance (AVP) explained for expats
- Contents insurance for renters in the Netherlands
- Insurance checklist for your first month
- Dutch home contents and liability insurance
This article summarises Lemonade’s own published conditions and is not insurance advice. All Lemonade statements above come from lemonade.com/nl/en — the homepage, FAQ, claims page, Giveback page, Policy 2.0 and Legal Stuff pages, — retrieved 4 October 2026. Consumentenbond statements were retrieved from consumentenbond.nl on the same date. Conditions change; read the current policy before buying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lemonade a real Dutch insurer or a foreign app?
It is a Dutch-licensed insurer. Policies are issued and claims are paid by Lemonade Insurance N.V., which is licensed by De Nederlandsche Bank with relation number R162036, registered with the AFM under 12047353 and with the Chamber of Commerce under 73227420. Distribution runs through Lemonade Agency B.V., an authorised agent with AFM licence 12047085, at Spuistraat 112A, 1012 VA Amsterdam (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). The parent, Lemonade, Inc., is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as LMND. The complaints route Lemonade describes is the Dutch one: its Customer Experience Team first, then Kifid.
What does Lemonade cost in the Netherlands?
Lemonade publishes three starting prices on its Dutch site: contents from €5 a month, buildings from €17 a month, and buildings and contents together from €21 a month (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Those are starting prices, not quotes. The company states that premiums are tailored per policyholder using factors including your property and location, and it may factor in the home's susceptibility to floods, severe weather damage and fires. The quote paths on its own site pair liability with contents or buildings: contents and liability, buildings and liability, or buildings, contents and liability.
Does Lemonade cover my bike and my laptop outside the house?
Only if you add the Anti-theft add-on. The base policy covers burglary and robbery — so a bike taken from your flat or basement storage, or a laptop taken in a break-in, is covered. Theft without forced entry or violence is not: a laptop swiped in a café, or a watch pocketed at your housewarming, needs the add-on (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). For a bike stolen outside, Lemonade requires an ART-approved lock of two stars or higher and, for e-bikes, that you take the battery with you; road bikes, ATBs, Urban Arrow e-bikes and fatbikes must be locked to a fixed object or kept in an enclosed space.
Can I speak to someone on the phone?
Not to buy a policy. Lemonade states that you can only sign up through its website or mobile app, and its customer service line is email, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00 (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). There is a phone number for complaints — 0800-0226040, Monday to Friday 9am–6pm — and the optional legal protection add-on, provided by ARAG SE, has a 24/7 emergency line on 033 434 23 42. If you want to talk to a human before buying, this is the wrong product.
What is the Giveback, and is it guaranteed?
No, and Lemonade says so itself. The company takes a flat fee from premiums, pays claims from the rest, and donates what is left to causes its customers pick. Its own FAQ states that the Giveback is subject to board discretion, that peer groups whose claims used up the pool may see nothing, and that paying claims takes priority (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026). Lemonade says it has donated over $12M since 2017. Lemonade contrasts this with traditional insurers, which it says keep whatever premium is left over after claims and expenses as profit; the Giveback is not a benefit you are buying.
Who cannot buy a Lemonade policy in the Netherlands?
Several groups. Buildings insurance is for freeholders only — Lemonade states it cannot offer it to leaseholders, and does not cover apartments, monumental buildings, mobile homes, holiday homes, caravans or houseboats. For contents, it cannot offer a policy if you live with more than three other housemates, and housemates are never co-insured; each needs their own policy (lemonade.com/nl/en, retrieved 4 October 2026).
How fast are claims really paid?
Lemonade's claims page states that about 40% of claims are handled instantly, with the rest going to a human team; its fastest recorded claim was three seconds. Those are the company's own figures. Filing runs through the app, including a short video statement, and payment goes to a bank account in your name in the EU, EEA or SEPA area.
What happens if I want to leave?
You can cancel at any time in the app with no notice period and no fee, and Lemonade refunds the unused part of the premium — it states within a few days, and 3 to 5 working days in the Giveback context. Policies renew automatically each year; Lemonade gives at least two months' notice if it cancels.
What if a claim is refused?
Complain to Lemonade's customer experience team first, by phone on 0800-0226040 (Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm) or by email; it aims to respond within 5 to 7 working days. If that does not resolve it, you can take the dispute to Kifid, the Dutch financial disputes institute, as with any Dutch insurer. Our guide to filing a claim in the Netherlands covers the general process.