Austrian OGH: Does Windstorm Insurance Cover Landslides?

Mar 21, 2025 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof, hereinafter OGH) clarified which earth movements fall under the term ‘landslide’.

In the case at hand, a homeowners insurance contract between the plaintiff and the defendant had been concluded, which was based, among other things, on the General Terms and Conditions for Storm Insurance (AStB-P 2016), which also covers the risk of landslides. The following are excerpts from the G&Cs:

‘Landslides are natural movements of earth and rock on a sliding plane below the natural surface. Insurance coverage shall extend to losses

a) resulting from the direct effect of

- landslides.

 Insurance coverage does not cover losses caused by [...]

d) subsidence.’

In 2018, after a heavy rain, the first signs of cracking had appeared in the plaintiff’s residential building on his property. The damage to the plaintiff’s building was due to shallow and/or deep downhill creep movements. These are slow movements with no clear sliding surfaces, with rates of movement of a few millimetres to centimetres per year.

The plaintiff sought insurance cover from the defendant because his house had been damaged by a landslide. The defendant argued that the earth movements did not constitute a landslide under the terms of the policy.

The lower court upheld the claim. The court of appeal, however, overturned this decision and dismissed the claim, arguing that such slow and minor ground movement could not be subsumed under the term ‘landslide’ in the policy conditions.

The OGH, to which the case was then referred, did not allow the plaintiff to appeal.

Any average policyholder will assume, simply on the basis of the clear description, that a ‘natural downward movement of earth and rock masses’ is a process that can be perceived by the human senses. On the other hand, very slow movements of the ground, which are not perceptible to the naked eye as a downward movement due to their low speed, and which take place underground, cannot be subsumed under this term.

Consequently, in the case of the creep movements that take place below the earth’s surface, as was the case here, the primary risk description of a landslide as an insured hazard was not fulfilled.

OGH 7 Ob 189/24f (29 January 2025)