Will your house insurance cover the cost of the remedial works?

Historical background

Prior to 1982 natural phenomena such as floods, earhquakes and tidal waves etc. were traditionally excluded from French property insurance policies because of the difficulty in assessing the risk and the tendency for those at risk to insure and for those not at risk to not insure - hence creating in affect an uninsurable risk.

But in 1981 serious floods occured in the Saone and Rhone valleys and in South West France that resulted in the law of 13th July 1982 that ensured that all the French population at risk were covered by insurance.

The law on insurance was a bit of a stop gap measure following the flooding and did nothing to actually reduce the risk of natural disaster. This was dealt with in another law dated 22 July 1987(modified on the 2 Feb 1995) that put in place a system that ensured that each commune that is subject to these risks could develop a "Plan de prevention des risques naturelles" (PPR) The PPR's are dossiers that defines:

• The natural disaster type(s)

• What the risks are

• The appropriate preventative measures

• Risk management procedures

How the system works

Under the 1982 law property insurers are obliged to cover for all uninsurable risks in your house insurance and these include:

• Floods and mudslides
• Earthquakes
• Landslides
• Subsidence
• Tidal waves
• Avalanches

The policies cover the cost of direct material damage suffered by the property and its contents up to the value stated in the policy and subject to the terms and conditions of the said policy at the time the risk first occurs. Because it is impossible for a normal policy issuer to take on board all these unknown and unquantified risks the insurers themselves are re-insured by the Caisse Centrale de Reassurance (CCR). This is a state owned company and is ranked among the top 25 reinsurers in the world and provides a guarantee of solvency and security for insureds within the natural disaster compensation scheme.

The Burea Central de Tarification (BCT) is a regulatory body for certain types of compulsory insurance cover and is responsible for the regulation of statutory national disaster insurance cover. Anyone involved in the disaster such as the insured, the insurer and the CCR can call in the BCT.

The process

The petition to declare a state of natural disaster is filed by the mayor who forwards it to the Prefect of the department.

The Prefect than has one month to put together a dossier that reports on:

• The nature and intensity of the disaster
• A technical report on the disaster
• A list of affected districts with a map
• Police and Fire brigade reports
• Documents such as press cuttings that show the abnormal intensity of the event

The dossier that may relate to a highly variable number of districts is then examined by an Interministerial Commission that expresses an opinion via a decree on the presence or absence of a natural disaster as defined by the law.

The insured person has 10 days after the the publication of the decree to declare all losses liable to give rise to a claim and the insurerer has to pay the compensation within 3 months of the publication of the decree.

The insurer must provide cover to the insured for all natural disaster losses except when:

• Goods or activities have been located in an unsuitable area after publication of a PPR
• They have been located in breach of administrative rules in force aimed at preventing damage by a naturaL disaster.

And if you do not agree with anything you can refer it to the BCT

Yes I have read all that but is my house insured against subsidence?

If you have a newish house and everyone in your street is suffering from subsidence or had had their roofs blown off and you meet the 10 day deadline after publication of the ministerial decree you might get something.

The fact is that house owners in the UK have been treated very leniently by the insurance companies. In France the likelihood is that you will not get a bean!!!

Where is subsidence and cracking likely to occur in France

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