Within a few years, three new things have appeared at most business sites: solar panels on the roof, an electric vehicle charger in the yard or garage, and, in the warehouse, lithium-battery forklifts, pallet trucks and perhaps employees' e-bikes and e-scooters. These were investment and energy decisions and were rarely seen as insurance questions. As a broker, I see that in such cases the property insurance policy typically still describes the site as it was before the installation: the solar panels are not in the sum insured, the risk survey did not know about the charger, and the storage requirements did not know about the batteries. And in a claim, these are what the dispute is about. In this article I go through what counts as new property, what counts as a change in risk, what the insurer typically expects and what is worth notifying – the details differ from insurer to insurer, so in every case the wording of your own conditions decides.
- Under some Hungarian policy conditions, solar panels fixed to the building are part of the building; under others they are property that must be named separately – if they are not included in the sum insured, a loss is paid only proportionally or not at all, so an installation calls for an update of the sum insured.
- Installing an EV charger and charging and storing lithium-battery equipment changes the fire risk of the site; under Section 6:452 of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) this is typically a material change that must be notified, in response to which the insurer may propose an amendment or set protection requirements.
- The fire-safety regulation (OTSZ) and the 2024–2025 extensions of the Fire Protection Technical Guidelines (TvMI) deal specifically with the design of charging points for large electric vehicles (buses, lorries) and of battery energy storage systems – complying with them is also a way of preventing a dispute over the exemption of the insurer when a loss occurs.
Solar panels: property that has to be counted in
The first question is not the risk but the value. A solar power system – panels, mounting structure, inverters, cabling and possibly battery storage – is worth a significant sum, and it has to appear somewhere in the sum insured. One Hungarian insurer's commercial property insurance conditions treat solar panels and solar collectors firmly fixed to the building as part of the building, so they must be included in the building's sum insured; other conditions mention them in a separate clause – there you need to check in which property group's sum they have to be included. The practical consequence is the same in both cases: if the sum insured was not increased after installation, the site has become underinsured, and the insurer may settle the loss – not just the loss to the solar panels – proportionally; the article on underinsurance explains this in detail. A rented roof is a separate case: if the solar system is not owned by the company but was installed and is operated by an energy service provider, it is typically the provider who insures the system, while the company's building cover needs to take into account that there is third-party equipment on the roof. The typical losses to solar panels – storm and hail, fire, power surges, lightning, theft – are made up of the traditional covers; how these work is covered in the articles on storm damage and on electronic equipment. What is typically not a property loss: lost electricity generation – that is a matter for business interruption cover or a separate clause, and it varies from insurer to insurer.
EV chargers and lithium batteries: a change in risk
The charger and the battery raise a question of a different nature: here it is not the value that changes but the risk. A lithium-ion battery fire is hard to extinguish, can reignite and passes heat on to neighbouring batteries; a charging point in a warehouse or a stock of batteries therefore rewrites the fire-risk picture. Charging an electric vehicle in an enclosed space, overnight and unattended, does the same. When the policy was taken out, the insurer underwrote the site's activity, technology and level of protection; under Section 6:452(2) of the Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.), changes in material circumstances must be notified in the manner and within the time limit set in the contract, and Hungarian conditions typically list changes in activity, technology and fire-hazard classification among the material changes. The question companies ask – ‘does this really have to be notified?’ – is decided by the change-notification clause of your own conditions; if the conditions expressly mention a change in technology, setting up a charging point or battery storage typically falls under it. The consequence of an unnotified change is set out in Section 6:452(3): the insurer's obligation to pay does not arise, unless the company proves that the circumstance did not contribute to the loss. With a fire that starts at a forklift charger, that is difficult to prove. The article on notifying changes in your details describes the notification process.
What do the fire-safety rules say – and why do they matter for insurance?
The National Fire Safety Code (Interior Ministry Decree 54/2014, OTSZ) sets out the requirements, while the Fire Protection Technical Guidelines (TvMI) set out the methods of compliance recognised by the Fire Protection Act: applying the TvMI is not compulsory, but anyone who follows them can regard the safety level required by the OTSZ as achieved. The electrical and lightning-protection aspects of solar power systems are dealt with in the TvMI on electrical installations, together with the safety of firefighting operations – marking and isolation. According to a notice from the disaster management authority, the guidelines were extended from 1 February 2025: the TvMI on protection against fire spread was extended to cover the fire-safety design of charging points for electric buses and lorries, the TvMI on explosion protection to cover the conditions for the charging technology of battery energy storage systems, and the TvMI on fixed fire-extinguishing systems to cover the design parameters for protecting these charging points – the notice does not mention any specific extension for charging points for cars and forklifts, which are governed by the general rules of the OTSZ and the TvMI. This matters for insurance in two ways. First, Hungarian conditions typically require compliance with fire-safety legislation and official regulations and, as loss prevention requirements, with the rules relating to the technology as well; breaching them does not in itself mean automatic rejection – the insurer may be released from paying if the breach was grossly negligent and is causally linked to the loss, and it is the insurer that has to prove this. The article on overdue inspections covers this in detail; solar power systems and chargers are electrical installations, so where the OTSZ prescribes periodic electrical safety and lightning-protection inspections, that requirement extends to them too. Second, after notification the insurer typically asks questions: where the charging point is, how the fire compartments are arranged, whether there is a fire alarm, how many batteries are stored and how, whether there is a separate charging room – and on these points it may set protection requirements or adjust the premium. Design in line with the TvMI is therefore not only a regulatory matter: it is also what the insurer's underwriter wants to see.
What belongs where: property, vehicles, liability
The three new assets also redraw the boundaries of cover. The charger itself is property, but the vehicle charging on it is outside the world of property insurance: damage to your own car is a casco (comprehensive motor insurance) matter, while damage to a customer's or an employee's car is a liability matter if it was caused by a fault in the charger – the article on vehicles at your premises covers the boundaries. In most conditions a forklift counts as machinery and equipment, together with its battery; a stock of interchangeable batteries, however, is stock (inventory) or equipment depending on how the company records it – it is worth clarifying in which property group's sum it is included. If the company operates the charger publicly, for payment, that is a new activity which must also be notified under the liability insurance. Selling solar-generated electricity may likewise be an extension of activity if the company also feeds power into the grid.
What should the company do before and after installation?
Before installation, it is worth informing the insurer of the plan in writing: for solar panels, the value of the system and the type of mounting structure; for a charger, its location and the types of vehicle; for batteries, the quantity stored and where charging takes place – this is the point at which the insurer can still set conditions, and at which the company can adapt the installation work to those conditions. After installation: increasing the sum insured by the replacement-as-new value of the solar system, filing the installer's documentation and the electrical and lightning-protection inspection reports, updating the company's fire safety rules to cover the charging point and battery storage, and keeping the written confirmation of the notification. For larger investments – an installation affecting the roof structure, a new charging park – the boundary issues discussed in the article on construction and extensions also arise for the duration of the works. If you let me know before installation, I help where I can with finding the relevant clauses of the conditions and putting together the content of the notification; the notification itself is the policyholder's duty. The insurer pays only for what is an insured event under your contract, and in the way its conditions describe the settlement – with a fire at an unnotified charging point, this sentence is to be taken particularly literally.
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Sources
- Hungarian Civil Code (Ptk.) – Act V of 2013, Section 6:452 (duty of disclosure and duty to notify changes, consequences of failure to comply)
- BM OKF (National Directorate General for Disaster Management): Fire Protection Technical Guidelines (index page of the TvMI in force – electrical installations and solar power systems, protection against fire spread, explosion protection, fixed fire-extinguishing systems)
- BM OKF notice (7 December 2024): The Fire Protection Technical Guidelines have been extended (applicable from 1 February 2025 – charging points for electric buses and lorries, charging technology of battery energy storage systems)
- TvMI 7.7:2026.02.01. – Electrical installations, lightning protection and protection against electrostatic charging (with a chapter on solar power systems)
- Generali Vagyonőr property insurance conditions for businesses (VVF, 26 October 2018), I.1.1.12 – solar panels and solar collectors firmly fixed to the building as part of the building (example of policy conditions)
- OTSZ – Interior Ministry (BM) Decree 54/2014 (XII. 5.) on the National Fire Safety Code
- Ttv. – Act XXXI of 1996 on fire protection, technical rescue and the fire service (legal status of the Fire Protection Technical Guidelines, TvMI)
