You see it around you regularly, graffiti on buildings and the newspapers are full of small destruction. What should you do if you are confronted with a vandal that damages your home and how can you recover your damage.
Your own insurance
The home insurance policy often provides cover for vandalism damage. However, a condition for compensation is usually that the offender unlawfully entered your home. This means that the perpetrators entered your home without your permission. This may be because they broke into the home, but also that, after you opened the front door, they entered the home without you agreeing.
Typically, however, vandals will not enter your home. In that case, the insurance will therefore not pay compensation for the damage. This means that, for example, only damage caused by graffiti is not covered by the home insurance, the same applies if your window frames are scratched or cut.
However, if the damage does not only fall under the heading of vandalism but can also be named under another category, there is a chance that you are still entitled to compensation. For example, you should think of damage where an attempt was made to break into the home, in which case there could be cover under the burglary cover. If the vandals have also started a fire against your facade, causing damage, there is cover under the heading fire damage. If you have co-insured window damage on your home insurance, window breakage is covered, whether it was caused by vandals or not.
Story on the culprit
Dutch liability law assumes that everyone bears his own damage unless someone else can be held liable for the damage caused. This means that only if the perpetrator is known will you be able to recover your damage. You have roughly two options for this, or you hold the perpetrator yourself liable or you submit yourself to criminal proceedings. If you have one legal insurance it is wise to enable them, they will be able to recover the damage for you. If you have not taken out legal expenses insurance, it is easiest for you to join the criminal proceedings. More information about this will be sent automatically by the Public Prosecutor.
Of course, if your home insurance has had to compensate you for the damage, it will also hold the perpetrator liable.
Multiple perpetrators
If it is established that several perpetrators have caused the damage, you do not need to hold each of these perpetrators liable for their part. The Dutch legislator has arranged so that in the event of damage caused by a group, you can hold each member of that group fully liable for the whole. The person addressed can then reclaim part of the amount paid by the other group members. For you this has the advantage that you never have to look for the other perpetrators. Moreover, in this way you can hold the perpetrator with the most pennies liable, so that you have the greatest chance of getting your damage compensated.