She and her general director of services moved heaven and earth, for a year, to find an insurer willing to cover the “damage to property” of buildings in the town: the mayor of Lescar, Valérie Revel, could be relieved, this Friday January 10, 2025 by showing off the hard-won contract.
Finance and politics: town halls are losing their confidence
Hundreds of municipalities in France can no longer insure their municipal buildings, either because companies or mutual societies have withdrawn, or because they present them with an astronomical bill. The Association of Mayors of France expresses its concerns
“We received the proposal on Wednesday evening, when there was a strong gust of wind. I said to myself, ‘I hope nothing happens in the night!'” Because the municipality near Pau had had no coverage for its buildings for more than a year – precisely on the 1stis January 2024 following the withdrawal of the previous insurer.
Unsuccessful searches
To protect its eighty public buildings, schools, gymnasiums and other associative premises, representing 55,000 m², Lescar will relaunch an unsuccessful call for tenders and conduct over-the-counter research for months. In vain so far.
During discussions with insurance companies, the municipality understands that the latter take into account three criteria – climatic events, urban violence, dilapidated buildings – for which its municipality is not particularly poorly classified but that the conditions have been drastically restricted.
“We have always been net contributors to the mutual insurance system, and we have even proposed to increase our contributions and deductibles”, specified the City of Lescar in October 2024 by alerting the public authorities, supported in its mobilization by the Association mayors of France.
Her municipality is now out of the woods, in return for a significant increase in franchise and contribution, Valérie Revel intends to continue to publicize her textbook case. “It’s a great relief, but what an obstacle course! And we know that this situation will affect more and more municipalities in the future. The state must intervene. ” How ? The socialist mayor of Lescar is launching two avenues: “Either by forcing insurance companies to insure municipalities, or by creating public insurance for communities. »
