Borrower insurance for an expat mortgage in France: your Lemoine-law rights

Complete pack · €89Insurance in France: the complete expat packCar, home and health explained, plus our Lemoine-law kit to switch your mortgage insurance, in English and in French

What’s in the pack — €89

Short answer: yes, an expat or non-resident can get borrower insurance (assurance emprunteur) for a French mortgage, and in practice the bank will not lend without it. You are free to bring your own insurer instead of the bank’s group contract, as long as its cover is equivalent; since the Lemoine law (loi n° 2022-270 of 28 February 2022) you can switch at any time during the loan, with no fee; and no health questions may be asked when your insured share is €200,000 or less and the loan ends before your 60th birthday. The real expat difficulty is not the law, it is the insurer panel: your country of residence decides who will accept you.

What the bank requires

No French law makes borrower insurance compulsory, but every bank makes it a condition of the loan. The usual minimum is death and total-disability cover (décès/PTIA) on each borrower, usually plus work-incapacity (ITT) and invalidity (IPT) on a main residence, sized by « quotité », the share of the loan insured per head (two borrowers must total at least 100%). On a buy-to-let or a second home, the bank may settle for death/PTIA alone. The bank offers its group contract; external « delegation » insurers quote the same borrower on their own grid. Compare the TAEA (annual effective insurance rate) and the total cost over the term, both shown on the standardised information sheet (fiche standardisée d’information) the bank must hand you: as a worked example with hypothetical rates, a 0.20-point gap on €250,000 over 20 years is about €10,000. According to the CCSF’s official review of the Lemoine law (January 2024), requests to switch rose by more than 80 % between 2021 and the first half of 2023, and alternative contracts grew from 15.3 % to 16.1 % of the market.

Your three Lemoine-law rights

One: free choice at origination — the bank may only refuse an external contract for non-equivalent guarantees, judged against criteria it must publish, answered within 10 working days, itemised in writing; residency is not a lawful ground of refusal. Two: switch at any time during the loan, no anniversary dates, no fees; the new insurer handles the substitution, from abroad as from France. Three: no medical questionnaire when the insured share per borrower does not exceed €200,000 and the loan ends before your 60th birthday (article L113-2-1 of the Insurance Code; it bans health questions, not the smoker question, which insurers still ask) — couples can often structure quotités (50/50 on €380,000) to fit both heads under the threshold, decisive for anyone with medical history. The rule depends on amount and age, not on where you live: it applies to expat borrowers too.

Comparing offers as an expat: the criteria that matter

Price comes last. A contract that refuses your country, or suspends cover when you move, is worthless however cheap. Read each quote against the same grid:

Criterion	What to check	Why it matters abroad
Country of residence	Accepted, surcharged or excluded	The first acceptance filter; residents of some countries (the United States first) are refused by many insurers for regulatory reasons
Territorial cover	Worldwide, or listed zones only	A claim arising in an excluded zone is not paid
Change of country during the loan	Declaration duty, endorsement, possible exclusion	Some contracts suspend cover after a move to an excluded country
Guarantees	Death/PTIA, IPT, ITT as required by the bank	A work stoppage under foreign employment law is hard to document to French standards
Definition of incapacity	Functional, or based on your profession	Decides whether an injury actually triggers payment
Medical formalities and claims	Exams possible locally, or in France only	Flights to France for a check-up add cost and delay
Exclusions	Sports, risky jobs, travel to sensitive zones	Rotations, offshore work and frequent travel are priced very differently by each insurer

Then compare the total cost over the term at equal guarantees. For non-residents, our French page puts the indicative budget at €20–120 per month depending on country, amount, age and cover — a market range, not a quote (assurance emprunteur non-résident). Job-loss cover is rarely available to expats; do not count on it.

Getting cover while living abroad: the practical steps

Ask about your country before anything else: a late refusal of insurance can bring down the loan offer.
Prepare the file: identity documents, proof of address abroad, foreign payslips or tax returns, the loan simulation (amount, term, rate) and the bank’s list of required guarantees; a translation may be requested.
Plan the medical side: above the no-questionnaire threshold, exams are done through a local approved network or during a stay in France — schedule them as soon as the purchase agreement is signed.
Submit the delegation early, before the loan offer is issued, so the bank’s 10-working-day answer does not delay signing.
Never cancel the old policy before the bank’s written acceptance of the new one: continuous cover is a loan condition.

Prefer to have it done for you? Get your quotes: the form at the bottom of this page passes your request to a broker, at most three, who can compare insurers that accept non-residents. Claude Assur itself is not an insurer or broker and sells no policy.

Health history: AERAS and the right to be forgotten

Above the Lemoine threshold, an insurer may ask health questions. The AERAS convention organises access to borrower insurance for people with an aggravated health risk, and a 5-year « right to be forgotten » erases cancer and hepatitis C histories once treatment ended five years earlier with no relapse — you then no longer have to declare them. The obstacles French cancer survivors met before these rules were widened are documented in The Lancet Oncology (Dumas, De Vathaire & Vassal, 2016). French details: assurance emprunteur après un cancer.

Frequently asked questions

Can an expat get borrower insurance in France?

Yes. Bank group contracts are often restrictive for non-residents, but delegation insurers specialised in expats accept many countries of residence. The market is narrower, not closed: compare several insurers.

Is borrower insurance mandatory for a French mortgage?

Not by law, but banks make it a condition of the loan, at least death/PTIA. You choose the insurer; the bank only checks that the guarantees are equivalent to its requirements.

Can a non-resident switch mortgage insurance under the Lemoine law?

Yes: switching at any time, with no fee, applies to every borrower, wherever they live. The new contract must offer equivalent cover and the bank has 10 working days to answer in writing.

Is the medical questionnaire also waived for expat borrowers?

Yes, under the same conditions: insured share of €200,000 or less per borrower and a loan repaid before your 60th birthday. Residency changes nothing; the smoker question can still be asked.

What is the best loan insurance (assurance emprunteur) when buying a house in France?

There is no single best contract: the best one is the cheapest offer that the bank accepts as equivalent and that accepts your country of residence. In practice, ask the bank for its list of required guarantees, get the bank’s group quote and two or three delegation quotes, discard any that exclude your country or your job, then compare total cost over the term (TAEA) at equal guarantees. The comparison grid above lists what to check.

Does the Lemoine law apply to personal loans in France?

No. The Lemoine-law rights described here — switching at any time, no health questions under €200,000 and before age 60 — concern home loans (crédits immobiliers). Insurance offered with a personal or consumer loan (crédit à la consommation) follows that loan’s own contract: read its cancellation terms before signing.

What happens to my loan insurance if I move abroad during the loan?

Moving country is a change to declare to the insurer. Depending on the contract it means an endorsement, a surcharge or a territorial exclusion. If the contract no longer fits, the Lemoine law lets you replace it with one that accepts your new country, and switch again once you return to France.

Sources

Updated 13 October 2026.

More expat guides: Personal liability in France: the invisible essential · Schengen visa insurance: the €30,000 certificate · Holiday home insurance in France: the non-resident owner’s guide · Landlord insurance in France: the PNO policy explained · all guides.