Who pays for damage to my own drone?

Guide figures from a published tariff table and from comparisons, table as of August 2023. Net premiums plus 19 percent German insurance tax.

In Germany there are three possible sources of money for your own drone: hull cover (Drohnenkasko, the drone version of comprehensive cover), your contents insurance (Hausratversicherung) and the manufacturer's replacement programme. Liability insurance is not one of them. It only pays for what your drone damages that belongs to someone else.

The typical loss, a crash while flying, is covered only by hull cover or a manufacturer programme. Contents insurance steps in only if the drone burns at home or is stolen in a burglary.

Hull cover pays for repair or replacement up to the sum insured, which is based on the purchase price. Good tariffs include batteries, remote control and camera, and do not cut your payout for pilot error by claiming gross negligence.

The catch is the age deductions. In published tariffs you get the full new value for 18 months. After that the insurer deducts 25 percent, from the fourth year 35 percent, from the fifth year 50 percent and after five years 75 percent. An older drone is therefore worth only a fraction in a claim.

Many providers also only accept drones that are at most 18 months old when you sign up. If you want hull cover, decide right after you buy the drone.

Forgetting, leaving behind and losing the drone are expressly excluded in published terms. If your drone flies off and is never found, read carefully whether the tariff treats that as a crash or as a loss.

Wear and tear, ageing batteries and defects that already existed when you signed up are never covered. If you break the flight rules, for example by flying in a no-fly zone, the insurer may reduce what it pays.

Manufacturers sell their own plans that give you a replacement unit for a fixed fee per case. For a small drone one year costs about EUR 80 to 90, plus around EUR 75 per replacement, at most twice a year. You usually have to buy the plan shortly after activating the drone.

Such plans often cover water damage too, but not theft. Hull cover includes theft but applies age deductions. Which suits you better depends on whether you worry more about breakage or about theft.

If your drone cost EUR 300 to 500, hull cover takes roughly a fifth to a third of the purchase price every year, and you still pay EUR 150 yourself in a claim. Putting money aside is usually cheaper.

Hull cover makes sense for expensive drones from around EUR 1,500, if you often fly over water, forest or rocks, and if you take the drone on trips.