Skip to content
Drone
Insurance

Private use

“My household policy covers my drone”

It may well. Your policy decides, and there is no general rule here. Belgian rules allow an insurer to keep aircraft outside household cover, without requiring it. What happens next is commercial policy: many insurers bring the hobby aircraft back in, each with a weight limit of its own.

Recreational use: the exemption rests on two conditions at once Two stacked bands. The upper one shows an aircraft under 900 grams in strictly private use, for which third-party liability is not imposed. The lower one shows the same aircraft flown for a business, for which the cover becomes compulsory whatever the weight. EXEMPTION THRESHOLD 900 g USE PRIVATE USE ONLY REGISTRATION FROM 250 g CONDITIONS BOTH REQUIRED TPL NOT IMPOSED

The exemption takes both conditions at once. One flight that serves an activity, even unpaid, removes it.

The legal rule in two conditions

Since 1 January 2023, third-party liability insurance is not required for a drone used strictly privately whose maximum take-off mass stays under 900 grams. Both conditions have to hold together.

Under 900 g, private use

Insurance not required

You remain liable for the damage you cause.

900 g or more, or professional use

Insurance required

Without a policy number you cannot get through registration as an operator.

Do not confuse the two thresholds: 250 grams triggers registration, and from the first gram as soon as the aircraft carries a camera. How to register

The limits of a household policy against a drone

Below are the situations that come back in the general conditions we go through. None of them holds in general, and that is the problem: two policies from the same insurer can differ on this depending on the year they were drawn up.

  • Use that counts as professional

    A video on a friendly shopkeeper’s channel, one photograph sold, a flight for your own business: the household policy stops where the activity begins.

  • An aircraft above a certain weight

    The limits vary widely. Some policies stop under a kilo, others go a good deal higher. Without reading your particular conditions, nothing can be said about it.

  • Damage to your own aircraft

    Third-party liability pays for what you do to other people, and never for your own equipment. A drone that does not survive the landing stays with you.

  • Interference with privacy

    Filming above the neighbours’ garden can engage your liability, on ground the household policy treats separately, when it treats it at all.

  • Flying beyond visual line of sight

    Flying on the video feed without watching the aircraft falls outside the regulatory framework in the open category. If an insurer establishes that after a claim, it has grounds to refuse.

  • Flying outside Belgium

    Many household policies limit cover to Belgium or to a few neighbouring countries. Anyone taking their drone on holiday checks that before leaving, not on returning.

Household policy or drone policy, risk by risk

The question is not which of the two is better. A household policy covers your daily life and treats the drone as one object among others. A drone policy treats nothing but that aircraft, and so goes further on the points that matter when one comes down.

Comparison, risk by risk, between household third-party liability and a separate drone policy: personal injury, property damage, loss of the aircraft, equipment carried, disputes with neighbours and flying abroad.
Risk Household liability Drone policy
Personal injury to someone else Depends on the aviation clause in your policy, and on the weight of the aircraft Covered, with a sum insured stated in the policy
Property damage to someone else Same reservation, same weight limits Covered, at the same sum insured
Your aircraft destroyed or lost Never. Third-party liability does not cover your own property Optional, through hull cover
Camera, gimbal, memory card Never Optional, provided you declare the value
A dispute with a neighbour over images or overflight Legal defence belongs to a separate policy, which is often missing Optional, through legal expenses cover
Flying outside Belgium Territorial scope often limited, to check before leaving European Union as standard, worldwide extension possible

When a separate policy is worth the cost

For a 200-gram aircraft flown three times a year above a field, there is little to decide: the chance of serious damage stays low and your household policy probably does the job. Check the aviation clause and leave it there.

With the value of the equipment the arithmetic changes. A 1,500-euro aircraft that disappears above woodland is a straight loss, and no third-party liability policy, household or otherwise, ever takes that on. Hull cover exists for it, and you find it only in a separate policy.

The second reason is where you fly. Above a housing estate, a busy beach or a gathering there are people you do not know, and the exposure is of another order than above an empty field. A sum insured written in the policy then counts for more than a clause whose reach you discover afterwards.

As soon as a flight serves an activity, even unpaid and even once, you leave the hobby behind. The exemption falls away, insurance becomes compulsory, and the household policy no longer takes part. The professional regime is described here .

Have your policy checked

Send us your particular conditions, with the weight of your aircraft. We will tell you whether your drone is covered and up to what mass. Checking costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

Have my situation checked

What a policy actually does after an accident is shown by three claims and how they ended. And the frequently asked questions answer in one sentence what comes back most often.

Royal Decree of 8 November 2020, article 12, as amended on 26 December 2022. Checked on 9 September 2026. This page describes a regulatory framework and does not replace reading your own policy.