Do I need legal expenses insurance for my solar panels?

Annual premiums for legal expenses insurance and the cost risk of a lawsuit, from published market overviews and fee calculators, as of October 2026.

Almost all German legal expenses policies exclude disputes about planning and building houses and structures. This is called the building risk exclusion (Baurisiko). The idea behind it: construction cases are expensive and hard to predict.

In 2012 the Higher Regional Court of Hamm ruled that a solar system on the roof is such a structure because it is permanently attached to the building. That it could be removed made no difference. The owner had to bear the costs of his dispute with the supplier himself. If you have an older policy, do not assume a dispute with the installer is covered.

Most conflicts arise around purchase and installation. Later on, they are more about money from the grid operator, your own insurer or the neighbour. The overview shows which part of a policy is responsible.

Some insurers now name solar systems (Photovoltaik) expressly in their terms. Typical conditions: the system belongs to you, it sits on a one or two family house you live in, and the dispute is directly linked to purchase, installation or operation.

A cap often applies, for example EUR 10,000 or 20,000 per case. That is usually enough for a first instance case, but maybe not for a dispute over several instances with expert reports. Search the terms for Photovoltaik, Solaranlage or Energieanlage and read the limit.

Legal expenses insurance only pays for disputes whose cause lies after the start of the policy and after the waiting period. The waiting period is usually three months. If you sign when the roof is already leaking, you get nothing for that case.

So sign before you sign the purchase contract for the system. If you switch from another legal expenses insurer without a gap, the waiting period usually does not apply.

For a balcony power plant (Balkonkraftwerk) costing a few hundred euros, the premium is out of all proportion to a possible dispute. If your system has run for years, has been accepted and the warranty has expired, there is also little left to argue about.

For questions on feed-in tariffs or grid connection there is the Clearingstelle EEG|KWKG, which answers many enquiries informally. Some consumer advice centres (Verbraucherzentrale) offer a free short consultation on solar. That does not replace a lawsuit, but it often clarifies whether a dispute is worth it.

It pays for your lawyer, the court, experts and, if you lose, the other side's costs, but not for damage to the system. Hail, storm and theft are for solar insurance or for buildings insurance that includes solar.

It also does not pay for damage your system causes to others. That is the job of liability insurance. And it does not protect you from an installer who goes bankrupt: winning a case helps little if there is nothing to collect.