These mayors of Loire-Atlantique feel taken “hostage” with the increase in insurance rates

To announce or not declare. This is the question that many elected officials from France, and therefore from Nantes vineyardarise daily in the event of claims in their communities. There severe increase prices in the insurance contracts makes think.

“I must not declare too much damage This year. They could tell me ‘Stop’ later…”, worries for example Jean-Guy Cornu, the mayor of Aigrefeuille-sur-Maine (Loire Atlantique). He saw the contributions of its municipality, which renewed its contracts Six months ago, double in two years to ensure the buildings : from €6,000 to €13,000.

Similar trend in Haute-Goulaine where elected officials had to review their copy concerning their lot “ Property damage » (other lots target the automobile fleet, civil liability, legal protection, etc.) after the Smaclinsurance of communities“offered” them a revaluation of their contribution for 2024: a little less than €2,000 additional to pay. Or +25% compared to the initial contract amount (€7,500).

A increase “unilateral and during the contract” is hard to swallow for Mayor Fabrice Cuchot, whose council unanimously validated the amendment at the beginning of May:

“We have such pressure that, if we ever refuse, we know that we are going to be upset the next time. We are forced, we have no choice. We are a bit hostage to the situation. »

“Small municipalities pay for the damage caused by large ones”

Insurance companies are within their rights. The insurance code provides that “in the event ofworsening risk during the contract […], the insurer has the option of either canceling the contract or proposing a new premium amount. In the case of Haute-Goulainethe company highlighted the “ multiplication of exceptional events (climatic or seismic) and great magnitude (riots and popular movements)”. One of the latest examples of which are the riots And violence urban areas from June 2023.

“My interpretation is that small municipalities pay for the damage caused by large ones,” reacts Jean-Guy Cornu, convinced that the crisis in New Caledonia will have a negative impact in this matter. “Insurance companies are no longer able to estimate a risk…,” continues the elected official.

We are entering an extremely complex period. I made it clear to my elected officials that we can no longer live like yesterday.

Expensive street furniture

In an attempt to reduce the “ loss experience » (ratio between the amount of losses compensated by the insurer and the total amount of premiums collected by the insurer), the elected official bet on the upcoming installation of video protection cameras and the recruitment, in the summer of 2022, of a municipal police officer. With already notable effects concerning the latter. One of its investigations, for example, made it possible to find the owner of a vehicle implicated in the degradation of a shade house which had just been installed near a school. The owner in question had to declare the damage to his insurer, of the order of €20,000 to €25,000, with electrical connections to review in particular.

Despite these parades, Jean-Guy Cornu thinks that one day or another, at the intercommunity level, the question of self-insurance. WhileAigrefeuille-sur-Maine “absolutely does not have the means” to use it, the neighboring town of Remouillé is already forced to do so. At the end of last March, she was the victim of damage within several sports complexes. The first estimates reported 4,000 to 5,000 € of damage. “But the deductible is €10,000. Suffice to say that we will not make the insurance work. The latter is good for a fire, big, big damage. The rest, we are self-insured,” assured Mayor Jérôme Letourneau.

All in a context of falling endowments towards communities. “The State has already tightened the screws on us. We will not be able to increase the taxes. There are arbitrations on repairs. Things planned for residents are set aside to repair. It’s on a case by case basis. I don’t want it, but I think we are going to experience a change in times,” concludes Jean-Guy Cornu.

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