Special insurance in Greece: pets, solar panels, farms, art, hunting

At a glance

The point

Some things have value, belong to you, and are touched by neither of the two policies the average Greek has. You insure the car because the law asks you to. The house, because the bank asks you to. Nobody asks about the dog, the panels in the field, the olive grove, the painting of your grandfather, the violin or your hunting gun. Special insurance is this category: small markets, few insurers, prices that are not published, and losses that you pay in full yourself when they come. This guide says for each one what is covered, what it costs and where the cover stops. Boats now have a guide of their own, boat insurance.

Why these things belong together

They share four traits, which explain both the prices and the difficulties.

Nobody obliges you, except in two cases. The hunter has a legal duty. The farmer pays a compulsory levy to a state body, which is not quite a policy but works like one. You buy the rest because you thought of it, so few people have them.

They are small markets. In car insurance many insurers compete and prices wear each other down. In pet insurance and in art only a few take part. Less competition means larger price gaps for the same cover, so a second quote is worth far more here than for the car.

The price is rarely in a table. A car price has many factors that a form can ask. For solar panels the price follows the value, and above a certain sum the file goes to head office. For art there is no price list, there is a valuer.

The loss is rare and large. Hail does not fall every May, but when it falls it takes the whole harvest. A dog does not bite every year, but when it bites a person, the compensation is not two hundred euros. This is the shape of risk that insurance handles well: rare, costly, and more than a household budget can carry.

Pets: a market that has just opened

Pet insurance is new in Greece, and it shows. It is sold in ready-made packages, often with one price for the dog and a lower one for the cat¹.

Eurolife prints €75 a year for My Happy Pet Standard, and €95 for a dog and €85 for a cat on Plus¹. Evropi prints €13.50 a year for First Pet, which covers the owner with two check-ups a year and the pet for treatment costs². Some larger packages also include the liability of the owner, that is the bite and the damage the animal does to third parties. For many, this is the most serious reason for the policy: a household can carry the vet bills, but often not the compensation to a person who was bitten.

Two things decide whether it is worth it. The first is age: many plans accept an animal only up to an age, and after that they either raise the price or close the door. Each plan writes its own limit. The second is a pre-existing condition, which is excluded everywhere. The dog that already limps will not be insured for that knee. And the duties of the owner come from Law 4830/2021⁴.

Two cases need care of their own. A dog of a special breed can be insured, but not by every insurer: the law calls no breed dangerous, but each insurer keeps its own list. And a horse needs three separate policies, for liability, for the animal itself and for the rider.

Solar panels: from the roof to the field

Panels have two lives. On the roof of a house they are a modest installation that nobody sees from the street. In a field they are an investment of hundreds of thousands of euros, with a loan behind it, a power purchase agreement in front of it, and in full view of the provincial road.

The insurer sees both the same way, as property priced on the value. No insurer prints a public rate for panels, so ask for a quote with the declared value of the system. Age matters, and above a certain sum insured the risk goes for a special assessment.

The roof is a matter for the home policy, and a written extension solves it. The same holds for the heat pump and the solar water heater, which come under the building for fire, lightning and storm, but not for mechanical breakdown. The solar park is a business risk: theft of panels and cables, inverter failure, hail, earthquake, and the lost income for each day the park does not produce.

The farm: ELGA and what is left on top

A farmer in Greece does not start from zero. There is ELGA, the Greek agricultural insurance organisation, a state body to which you pay a compulsory special levy on the value of your produce, and which pays out for specific natural risks. It is a system of solidarity more than an insurance policy, and the difference shows when the loss comes: there is a threshold, there are rates, and the payment is not the market value of your harvest but a percentage of a price that its regulation sets.

Above it sits a small private market. It sells mainly extra hail cover, cover for greenhouses and for crops hit by frost, and livestock insurance. It has no published prices, and the price is set case by case. That is the most honest picture we can give of a line where the rules change and the rates differ from year to year.

Art, collections and instruments

The painting in the living room, the icons from your grandmother, the coin collection, the two watches in the drawer. The home policy covers them, but with two brakes that most people do not read: a limit per item, often small, and a total limit for “valuables”, which is usually a percentage of the insured contents. If you own a painting worth half the contents of the house, your policy does not see it.

The answer is a declared list with an agreed value and, where needed, a separate all-risks policy. There the logic of the payment changes too: you do not argue about the value on the day of the loss, because you agreed it at the start, with a valuation. Two points catch owners out. Restoration can lower the value even when it succeeds. And if you declared less than the value, the average clause cuts the payment in proportion.

A musical instrument is the same story, with one difference: it travels. Home insurance covers it only inside the house. On stage, in the car and in the studio it needs an all-risks policy for portable equipment, which pays for sudden damage and theft wherever it is.

The hunter

In Greece a hunting licence is not issued without an insurance policy. In practice almost nobody takes out a policy alone: the cover comes as a group, through the hunting club and the federation, and its cost hides inside the fees and the membership you pay anyway. It covers liability to third parties and, usually, a sum for an accident to the hunter.

Two things need care. First, the limits of the group cover are modest, and an accident with a hunting gun is not a modest event. Second, general personal liability policies nearly always exclude hunting, so there is no second net from there. And the hunting dog counts as a companion animal under Law 4830/2021, with all that this means for your liability.

Where to go from here

Six subjects, six logics. For a price, open the comparison for pets or solar panels. For a boat, a jet ski or an inflatable, go to the boat insurance guide.

Frequently asked questions

What do all these policies have in common?

No bank asks for any of them, and no vehicle inspection (KTEO) reminds you of them. They are things of value that live outside the two policies everyone has: the dog, the panels in the field, the olive tree, the painting on the wall, the guitar in the backpack. The home policy and the car policy do not touch them, or touch them with limits that are not enough.

Which of them does the law make compulsory?

Hunting insurance, which the hunting licence requires. And the levy to ELGA, for anyone who declares crop production or livestock. The rest is your choice.

How much do they cost in all?

Often less than you imagine, with one exception. Some insurers print pet plans on their sites, from €13.50 a year at Evropi to €75 at Eurolife, and hunting insurance hides inside the club membership. The exception is the solar park, where the premium follows a large value.

Does my home policy cover the panels on the roof?

Almost never, unless it says so expressly. Most home policies insure the building and whatever is fixed to it, but exclude installations that produce and sell energy. Ask for a written extension or a separate policy, with a declared value for the system.

Is insurance for my dog compulsory?

Insurance for vet bills is not. Law 4830/2021 imposes other things: microchipping, registration, neutering or a DNA sample, and the liability of the owner for any damage the animal does. Pet liability insurance is not compulsory, but the liability it covers is.

Does ELGA pay for all the damage in the field?

No. ELGA covers specific risks, mainly hail, frost, windstorm, flood and snow, with a damage threshold and rates that its regulation sets. Drought and most diseases stay outside. A private policy covers the rest, if you want one.

Is it easy to find prices for these products?

Harder than for the car. Few insurers sell them, and for most of them the price is set case by case. That is why we give only the prices that insurers print on their own sites, with the page.

Sources

1. ↑Eurolife FFH, My Happy Pet, prices of the plans, September 2026
2. ↑Evropi Insurance (Ευρώπη Ασφαλιστική), First Pet: the annual premium, 12 October 2026
3. ↑Interlife, PET Care Basic and Plus, 12 October 2026
4. ↑Law 4830/2021, new framework for the welfare of companion animals, 2021