For the more than 700 businessmen attacked and looted since Tuesday, it is time to take stock. If insurers have to cover most of the damage, not all victims will escape unscathed. Fire or theft, for example, are part of the basic risks and are covered by multi-risk professional contracts, but they do not include operating losses.
1 in 2 companies insured against business interruption
The insurance against operating losses is a specific contract that covers the loss of profit linked to the closure, until a reopening. A guarantee that is sometimes vital for businesses that have seen their glass door pulverized with stones and hammers, their iron curtain torn or their facade blackened by fire, not to mention theft and damage to the interior, and for that reopening may take time.
Unfortunately, according to France Assureurs, only one in two companies has signed up. “It’s not a huge proportion,” Olivier Moustacakis, co-founder of Assurland, an online insurance comparator, told AFP.
If the extent of the damage is difficult to quantify at the moment, it is likely that the bill will be higher than that of the yellow vest demonstrations, which had caused 249 million euros of damage in 2018 and 2019, and that of the riots. of 2005 (204 million euros).
A potential drop in deductibles
Whatever the loss suffered -fire, theft, broken glass…- you must also take into account the deductibles, or, for the guarantee of operational loss, the days of waiting. “Everything depends on the contract you have signed and the amount of premiums you have been willing to pay, since the lower the deductible, the higher the price,” explains Olivier Moustacakis.
Calling these attacks and looting “inexcusable, indescribable and intolerable,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire on Saturday urged insurers to extend reporting deadlines, promptly compensate victims and lower deductibles. “It is the minimum, but then we will have to see how to apply that,” chef Thierry Marx, president of the Umih, the main hotel and restaurant union, reacted on RMC on Sunday.
“Announcements are always advertisements, (…) but after that we will have to deal directly with the insurance companies, simplify the procedures, that’s another thing again,” he added. If the France Assureurs federation said it was mobilized to “accelerate compensation”, however, it did not publicly pronounce itself in favor of a reduction in deductibles.
Badly experienced administrative burden
In addition to the economic aspect, there is also a psychological aspect for traders, a profession that is struggling to see the end of the tunnel, between the health crisis, the inflation of energy costs, the demonstrations against the pension reform, and now these unrest
“When you are a food business, when you start at 4 am in Rungis, when you close your store at 8 pm, when you still have to clean up and fill out your subsidy files, it is not possible,” Murielle Bourreau warned on BFMTV on Saturday. , Vice President of the French Federation of Trade Associations.
Despite everything, the compensation process “remains quite simple,” says Olivier Moustacakis, and advises contacting your insurer as soon as possible, even if the exact extent of the theft or destruction is not yet known. It is in a second stage that an attempt will be made to estimate the damage with the assistance of the insurer, who may send an expert.
“We don’t have monstrous deadlines”, compensation will take a few weeks in most cases and, despite the magnitude of the damage, “insurers are still equipped” to deal with the influx of claims, adds Olivier Moustacakis.
other possible ways
In order to facilitate the filing of complaints and thus compensation, several prefectures have strengthened their system. In case of unprotected damage, the victim can also turn against the State, “civilly responsible for damages and losses resulting from crimes and misdemeanors committed (…) by crowds or armed or not concentrations”, according to the internal security code . .
The cities of Paris and Toulouse were thus able to be compensated at the time of the yellow vests, but the procedure is necessarily longer than with an insurer.
Source: BFM TV
