Collection 2 articles 8 minutes

Liability insurance and legal protection in Greece: the complete guide

Liability insurance pays for the damage you do to someone else, and legal protection pays your lawyer. What each one covers, what is compulsory, and what the public figures show.

The guide, step by step

2 articles, in order

2 articles, in the order we wrote them.

Start at the first

01

Andrew Neel · Pexels

Liability and legal protectionGuide13 September 2026 17 minutes

Short-term rental and Airbnb insurance in Greece: what it costs

A home policy does not apply when the home is let by the night, and since October 2025 the law asks for liability cover. What the home needs and what it costs.

Home and property Liability and legal protection
02

Efrem Efre · Pexels

Liability and legal protectionGuide13 September 2026 19 minutes

Hotel and rented rooms insurance in Greece: what it costs

The market average for property is about €1.17 a year per €1,000 of value, before tax. What a guest property policy covers, earthquake, liability to guests and the lost season.

Business Liability and legal protection

At a glance

INTERASCO publishes four private and family liability packages, with total premiums of €45, €60, €85 or €105 a year¹.
Compulsory motor insurance covers at least €1,300,000 per victim². In a private policy you choose the limit, and it can be far lower: the INTERASCO packages pay €20,000 to €100,000 per person for bodily injury¹.
Private and family liability is a rare purchase: 131,233 covers in force in the insurers’ association survey for 2024³.
Family legal protection is rarer still: 31,159 family policies in 2024, against 4,558,707 motor ones⁴.
A claim for damage from negligence expires five years after the injured person learned of the damage and of the person liable, and in any case twenty years after the act⁵. A policy you cancel today may be needed for a claim in 2030.

The point

Liability is the damage you do to someone else and must pay for out of your own pocket. Legal protection is the lawyer you need when the other person is at fault, or when someone accuses you unfairly. One protects you from the claims of others. The other helps you claim what is yours. Both are sold in Greece, and both are rarely bought.

What liability means, in plain words

Each time someone suffers harm through your fault, the law says you owe them: whoever unlawfully and culpably harms another must compensate them⁶. You did not need to mean it. It is enough that you took less care than an ordinary, reasonable person would take. That is the foundation of all liability insurance.

You do not set the sum you owe. The damage sets it. If you break a window, you owe a window. If a person falls down your stairs and breaks a hip, you owe the hospital stay, the physiotherapy and the wages they lost. A court can also award a reasonable sum for non-pecuniary damage, especially for harm to health⁷. Motor claims show the scale: in 2024 the average bodily injury claim from a passenger car was €11,691⁸. A court judgment can be enforced on what you own.

Liability insurance takes this debt and makes it its own. You pay a small sum each year. When the harm happens, the insurer pays the injured person, up to a maximum limit written in the policy. The law also makes it pay the costs of fighting off an unjustified claim against you. It does not cover damage you cause on purpose⁹.

Why few people have it

In Greece, anyone who hears “liability” thinks of the car. That makes sense: motor insurance is compulsory and its limit is high². But it covers only what happens with the car. The dog, the child, the flowerpot that falls from the balcony, the bicycle, the tap that floods the flat below: all of these stay outside.

The policy that covers them is called general personal liability, or family liability. It costs little: from €45 to €105 a year in the packages INTERASCO publishes¹. And few people buy it. The association’s survey for 2024 counted 131,233 private and family liability covers in force, while 6,376,065 vehicles were insured³ ⁸. Nobody plans to harm someone else. We buy insurance for the things we fear, and we do not fear ourselves.

The three families of policies

Liability insurance in the Greek market falls into three groups. Each has a different price, a different logic and different buyers.

General personal liability

It covers you and your household for damage to third parties in daily life: at home, in the street, on holiday, at the sports ground. Who counts as household is written in the policy. INTERASCO, for example, covers the spouse and up to two children up to 18, or up to 25 if they study. It charges more for more members, for bicycles and for a cat or a dog, and it does not cover professional activity¹.

Read the territorial scope as well. The INTERASCO packages cover the countries of the European Union¹.

Professional liability

It covers the damage your work does to a client or to a third party. Not because you tripped, but because you made a mistake. The tax return filed late that brought a fine. The structural study that missed the crack. The diagnosis that was not made. The life policy that was sold wrongly. In 2024 the association’s survey counted 55,665 professional liability covers³.

Ask how the price is set: the profession, the fees, the limit and the excess can all move it. It costs more than personal liability for a reason: the insurer does not cover a thing that can burn, but a judgement that can be wrong for years without anyone knowing.

The law makes it compulsory for some professions. Insurance intermediaries are one: they need cover of at least €1,564,610 per claim and €2,315,610 a year¹⁰¹¹.

Special liabilities

Some situations fit cleanly into neither group. Your dog is one. The keeper of an animal is liable for the damage it does to a third party. Only for an animal used for work, for guarding the home or for the keeper’s food can the keeper escape, by proving no fault in guarding it¹². The administrator of a block of flats is another: a private person who runs a building.

Legal protection: the other half

Liability works when you are at fault. When the other person is at fault, it does nothing for you. You need a lawyer to claim for your damage, and a lawyer costs money.

Legal protection pays such costs, up to the limit of the policy. Read which costs it pays: the lawyer, the court fees, the expert, the costs of the other side if you lose. It does not pay the compensation you owe to someone else.

It is sold in three forms:

As an extra cover on a motor policy. It covers disputes about the car. This is by far the most common form: 4,558,707 of the legal protection policies counted for 2024 were motor policies⁴.
As an extra cover on a home or liability policy. Check its limit, which can be lower.
As a separate family policy. It can also cover employment disputes, disputes with the landlord or the tenant, and disputes with shops. Only 31,159 family policies were counted for 2024⁴.

What is compulsory and what is not

What	Compulsory	Law
Car, motorcycle, any motor vehicle	Yes, at least €1,300,000 per victim for bodily injury and per accident for property	Law 5113/2024
Insurance intermediary	Yes, at least €1,564,610 per claim and €2,315,610 a year	Law 4583/2018
Organiser of a motor-sport event	Yes, as a condition of the permit	Law 5113/2024
Electric scooter	Yes, at least €50,000 per incident¹³	Law 5322/2026
Pleasure boat and small speedboat	Yes, €50,000 per passenger and at least €500,000 per event for bodily injury¹⁴	Law 4256/2014, article 14
Doctor, engineer, lawyer, accountant	Read the rules of your profession and your contracts with clients
Private person and family	A choice, unless a special rule applies to your case

The motor rows come from Law 5113/2024², and the row for intermediaries from Law 4583/2018¹⁰.

The table shows something important. The compulsory motor policy has a limit of €1,300,000, because a death or a paralysis can cost that much. A private policy can sell with far less: the INTERASCO packages pay €20,000 to €100,000 per person for bodily injury¹. But the damage is the same, whether a car causes it or a dog. When you choose a limit, think of the injury, not the premium.

How to choose: three questions

Before you compare prices, answer three questions. They show which policy you need.

Who can I harm, without a car? If the answer includes children, a dog, a bicycle, a balcony over a pavement, or a flat above another flat, you need general liability.

Who can my work harm? If you give advice, sign studies, treat patients, or manage the money or the data of others, you need professional liability. If you are an insurance intermediary, the law has decided for you¹⁰.

Who can harm me, and would I have the money to pursue them? If the answers are “my employer”, “my landlord”, “the other driver” and “no”, you need legal protection.

Then, in each policy, look in this order: limit, excess, exclusions, territorial scope. The price comes last. In the INTERASCO packages, the step from the first to the fourth costs €60 a year and raises the total limit from €80,000 to €300,000¹.

Where to go from here

Liability is a subject with many sides. The articles below take the liability of a host: a hotel, rented rooms and a short-term rental. Read the one that fits your work or your life. For a price, open the comparison for personal liability insurance or for legal protection.

Frequently asked questions

I have car insurance. Does it not cover the rest too?

No. Car insurance covers only damage done with the car. If your child breaks a window with a ball or your dog bites a passer-by, the car policy pays nothing. General personal liability covers these, as a separate policy.

What is the difference between liability and legal protection?

Liability pays the other person when you are at fault. Legal protection pays your lawyer when the other person is at fault or when someone accuses you. One looks outwards, the other inwards. A family can need both. Legal protection is sold as an extra cover or as a separate policy, so ask for both and compare what each covers.

Is liability insurance compulsory?

For a private person in daily life, as a rule no. Compulsory cover exists for specific cases, such as motor vehicles, whose cover must reach at least €1,300,000 per victim, and insurance intermediaries, who need professional indemnity cover. For anything else, check the rules of your own case.

What limit of cover do I need?

Think of the injury, not the premium. In a serious injury the injured person asks for hospital costs, lost wages and compensation for pain and distress, all together. Ask for prices for two limits, for example €100,000 and €300,000, and look at the gap.

What does claims-made mean in professional liability?

It means the policy pays for a claim made while the policy is in force, not for a mistake made at the time. If you stop the policy and a claim arrives for old work, nobody pays. That is why retroactive cover and run-off cover after you stop exist.

Does liability insurance pay if I am at fault through negligence?

Yes, that is exactly its job. Negligence is the rule in damage claims, not the exception. It does not pay when you cause damage on purpose: the law says so. A policy may also exclude damage caused while drunk. Read the section on exclusions before you sign.

Sources

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