catastrophe naturelle

[g8vkv]

Has anyone any experience/knowledge of this?

We had a big storm last Friday night - wind speeds in excess of 150Km/h

We had 2 trees come down and a neighbour's tree on us. Luckily, the damage was fairly minor :

Tree 1 (ours) blocked the entrance to us/neighbour

Tree 2 (ours) obliterated an olivier (ours) and did minor damage to neighbour's garden

Tree 3 (neighbour's) did some minor damage to the roof of our cabanon

The general opinion hereabouts is that the 'event' will be declared a 'catastrophe naturelle', which - as I understand it - changes the nature of insurance claims, in that claims normally done through 'third party liability' are now claimed directly on the third party's insurance (so for example the damage done by tree 3 will be claimed on our insurance and not a claim against our neighbour).

So far, so good. However I was wondering if the 'things you can claim for' changes. For example under normal circumstances, we would not be able to claim for the clearing-up of tree 2 and damage to the olivier - because (I think) trees aren't insured - however, since catastrophe naturelle implies a wider, unavoidable event, I was wondering if the olivier (it was pretty old) could be put on a claim.

The wording of the insurance for catastrophe naturelle quotes cover for 'Les dommages matériels directs ....' and I suppose my 'bottom line' query is whether this phrase has some specific meaning in French insurance? I've discussed this with our insurance agent (a pleasant Dutch guy, but he seems as flummoxed as us)

Sorry to be so waffly, but the past few days have been a bit traumatic, albeit rather neighbourly as everyone has been going around comparing damage ('you were lucky ...')

As always, many thanks for any comments/thoughts

[Clair]

details here: http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F3076.xhtml

[quote]Limitations de l'indemnisation 

La victime n'est indemnisée que pour les biens

couverts par son contrat (elle ne peut faire jouer sa multirisque

habitation si son véhicule est endommagé), dans la limite des plafonds

de garantie. 

Elle n'est pas indemnisée des frais indirects (immobilisation des véhicules, pertes de jouissance de biens). 

Si elle n'est assurée qu'en responsabilité civile, elle ne sera pas indemnisée.[/quote]

[odile]

I know this is not practically helpful, but have you seen the film 'Suing God' with Billy Conolly?

[Callie]

That sort of damage happens every year somewhere in France. Sorry to sound heartless, but I would be surprised if it is classified as a "catastrophe". On Boxing Day of 1999 there were terrific storms throughout France and millions of trees were lost, houses damaged, people having to find alternative accommodation. There were electricity powercuts for days and weeks in some places. Here in Maine et Loire, there were mini tornadoes and you could see the routes they took, cutting swathes through plantations and chopping trees in half.

[seb47]

Callie is mostly correct. I'd advise you not to hold your breath! We had severe flooding in Lot et Garonne in May 2007. For example. friends had the contents of their veg patch washed into the swimming pool plus lots of other damage. It was a complete mess for kilometers around.  It tooks months for them (the Departement) to formally declare a "Catastrophe Naturelle". Our friends had already cleared up most of the mess to mitigate their loss but were penalised because they should have left everything as it was - apparently you are even supposed to leave the food rotting in your freezer until the formal declaration. We came to the conclusion that much of our insurance was a waste of time.

Peter

[BIG MAC]

And so if ever there was a product just waiting for a canny Bilingual broker to pick up.......................

[g8vkv]

Yes, it's now clear the the status of this storm will take some time to argue over. The Maire is in the process of asking for dossiers with damage/photos etc. to be lodged at the Mairie. There's no doubt the damage is severe and pretty localised - people are talking about the worst wind they can remember. We're having a few additional trees dropped/lopped as an indirect consequence, so I guess one person to benefit is the loggeur.

Anyway, thanks for the info/comments.

And I thought life in the countryside was meant to be boring!

[andyh4]

One the other hand Rhone Alpes suffered a serious of flood events between mid September and mid October and the prefect declared natural catastrophy before the end of October for all of the worst affected communes.  I suppose it is more difficult to reciver from roads buried in flood debris and bridges damaged than to pick up a few bits of wood.