Cancelling an insurance policy — home contents, liability, legal expenses and others (Germany)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
A letter cancelling your home-contents, personal liability, legal expenses, buildings, accident or pet liability insurance in Germany: with ordinary notice at the end of the insurance period, within one month of a premium increase (§ 40 of the German Insurance Contract Act, VVG), after a claim, or, for contracts of more than three years, at the end of the third year (§ 11 VVG) — each time, failing that, for the earliest possible date. It revokes the direct-debit mandate and asks for confirmation of the end date. Motor insurance has a document of its own. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Insured
- Insured's address
- Insurer
- Insurer's postal address
- City
- Date
- Policy number
- Ground and date of the cancellation
- Type of insurance (e.g. home contents, personal liability)
- Date of birth
- End date of the contract
- Attachments
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- When, and on what notice, can home contents or liability insurance be cancelled in Germany?
- At the end of the current insurance period, usually the insurance year, on the agreed notice; it must be the same for both sides and between one and three months (§ 11(3) of the German Insurance Contract Act, VVG). If the contract runs for more than three years, you may cancel at the end of the third and each later year on three months' notice (§ 11(4) VVG). The dates are in your policy.
- Is there a special right to cancel German insurance after a premium increase or a claim?
- If the insurer raises the premium under an adjustment clause without changing the cover, you may cancel within one month of receiving the notice, at the earliest from when the increase takes effect (§ 40 VVG). After an insured event, either side may cancel property insurance, such as home contents, until one month after the settlement talks end (§ 92 VVG), and liability insurance within one month of the insurer accepting the claim or wrongly refusing it (§ 111 VVG). For other lines the policy terms decide.
- How must a cancellation reach a German insurer to be in time?
- In text form: policy terms may not demand a stricter form from you (§ 309 No. 13 of the German Civil Code, BGB), so an email is enough. If you took the policy out online, you can also use the “Verträge hier kündigen” button (§ 312k BGB). What counts is receipt by the insurer before the deadline, not dispatch (§ 130 BGB). Send by email and by post; the online status of a registered letter dropped into the letterbox does not reliably prove receipt (2 AZR 68/24), whereas a messenger who witnesses the posting does.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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