Around 20% of the communities surveyed in February 2024 by the Senate had seen their contract terminated at the initiative of the insurer.
Breil-sur-Roya, October 4, 2020, after the passage of storm Alex. (AFP / NICOLAS TUCAT)
The approximately 70 municipal buildings in Breil-sur-Roya have no longer been insured since January 1, after the insurer terminated all of the municipality's contracts. To protest against “an inconceivable and unjust situation”, Mayor LR Sébastien Olharan (LR), signed an order on Thursday January 2 prohibiting any natural disaster on his territory.
The town of 2,200 inhabitants has been insured for more than 20 years with Smacl, a company now backed by
Maif and which remains one of the few with Groupama still on
the community insurance market
.
But, in June, Smacl announced its intention to terminate all of Breil's contracts at the end of the year. And despite his efforts, the mayor could not find an insurer.
He only obtained at the last minute from Smacl
a one-year extension of compulsory insurance in terms of functional protection and liability
for damage caused to third parties, as well as for the circulation of municipal vehicles. On the other hand, the approximately 70 municipal buildings (town hall, school, nursery, library, etc.) have no longer been insured since January 1: in the event of a disaster, all repair costs will be borne by the municipality.
“Response with the absurd”
Consequently, “natural disasters are prohibited throughout the territory of the municipality”, announces the first article of the municipal decree, which cites “fires, floods, ground movements, earthquakes, landslides, storms, snow, hail” but also “riots, terrorism, vandalism, theft, involuntary damage”.
“Faced with an inconceivable and unjust situation,
endangering our municipality, our public heritage and taxpayers' money
I am reduced to this absurd response,” explained the mayor in a press release, calling for an urgent reform of the community insurance system.
Breil-sur-Roya is in fact not a unique case: according to a consultation carried out in February 2024 by members of the Senate Finance Committee, 60% of the 713 responding communities had encountered at least one significant problem with their current insurer. 2023.
Some
20% had their contract terminated at the initiative of their insurer
sometimes with very short notice. Nearly a third had seen their contract subject to an amendment, almost always with an increase in contributions.
Another mission carried out at the start of 2024, at the request of the government, by the mayor of Vesoul Alain Chrétien (Horizons) and the former president of Groupama Jean-Yves Dagès, also revealed the deterioration of relations between communities and insurance companies, which This was accentuated with the riots of June 2023, leading to “brutal terminations” and “sometimes dizzying increases in premiums and deductibles”.
On October 2, 2020, a deluge hit the hinterland of Nice and Menton, causing devastating floods in the remote valleys of Vésubie, Roya and Tinée, where some 13,000 residents suddenly found themselves cut off from the world. The episode left 10 dead and 8 missing.
Around 85 kilometers of roads had been washed away or damaged, 20 bridges destroyed or rendered unusable, 2,500 houses surveyed, including 420 condemned, the water and electricity networks cut: the damage was estimated at at least one billion euros. .
