We continue our guide to holiday property insurance by looking at the compulsory earthquake insurance called DASK.

If you haven’t already please read our first article covering insurance types and some of the preparatory work you need to do before hitting the streets of the internet for a quote.

DASK translates as The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP) and is a compulsory insurance issued by the Turkish Government. It is a ‘not for profit fund’ to provide insurance cover for properties within Turkey. It has been designed to protect the government from the financial burden of a major earthquake and claims from property owners, develop earthquake awareness and to provide a fund to pay people who’s properties have been damaged by earthquake.

The insurance is compulsory for all private dwellings including apartments in blocks and offices or other work spaces located within these types of buildings that are included on the land registry.

A policy must be taken out every year and a fee paid. The cost of the policy is worked out using the following:

• The area of the property (remember we covered that in our last article?)
• The construction type e.g. wood, concrete, stone
• The earthquake risk area

Bare Bones

DASK do point out that they only cover the ‘bare bones’ or rebuild costs and that additional cover should be taken out with a private insurance policy (more on that in our next article).

The maximum the scheme will pay out (2009 limits) is 140,000 TL.

Premiums are calculated on the basis of 5 earthquakes risk areas and 3 types of building construction methods to generate 15 unit prices that are multiplied by the area of the property in m2.

Premium Payable

If you want to calculate the cost of DASK for your property you can do so at this www.dask.com.tr.

The website is in Turkish but is easy to use if you follow the guidance below.

İL / İlce / Belde – Chose the county e.g. MUGLA, then the administrative area e.g. FETHIYE then the town or village your property is located.

Then, in the next box Bina Yapı Tarzı, choose one of the three options of how is the building constructed:

• CELIK BETONARME KARKAS – Steel reinforced concrete
• DIGER YAPILAR – Other
• YIGMA KAGIR YAPILAR – Stone or brick

The next box Daire: - Input the area of the property in metres squared. Don’t forget to include all the floors of your property.

Next enter the security code shown on the picture (note use the correct case for this e.g. Uppercase/Lowercase)

Click the HESPLA button and up comes the premium for your property and the amount insured.

DASK insurance can be bought from many insurance brokers, banks and agents.

Compulsory

One final point, whilst DASK is ‘compulsory’ there appears to be no enforcement to make sure you do have one except when carrying out official activities to do with your property. These include:

 - Registration of your property with the authorities;

 - Subsciption to electricity, water and phone/internet.

You may therefore find some property owners don’t have this cover or have let it lapse either through choice, ignorance or on cost grounds.

So, if you live in an apartment, whilst you may have cover, your neighbours may not. Maybe that will never be an issue but who knows…….

Not Insurable

If you own a property built after 27th of December 1999 without a permit or within a village where building control processes are not available then you will not be able to take out a TCIP policy.

Benchmark

In the meantime check out this link from UK insurance broker Intasure and get a quote for your Turkish property. Comprehensive insurance for holiday homes and holiday lets with the entire policy wording in English and underwritten by Lloyds of London* Intasure work with Ray Sigorta, Haydar Aliyev Cad. No:35 34457 Tarabya-Sarıyer-İSTANBUL in line with Turkish law

Next Up

In part 3 of our guide we’ll look at the places you can get quotes for insurance.

* sponsored link