“Faced with an inconceivable and unjust situation, endangering our municipality, our public heritage and taxpayers' money, I am reduced to an absurd response.” The mayor of Breil, Sébastien Olharan, is disappointed. The municipality's historic insurer, Smacl, may have recently agreed to renew its contracts for civil liability and legal protection, but municipal buildings have no longer been insured since December 31 at midnight.
The summary filed before the administrative court to force Smacl to maintain its guarantees, for an additional period of one year, was in fact rejected on December 31. Leaving the village of La Roya, severely affected by storm Alex in 2020, without a solution.
The conclusion is clear: “There is no need to rule on the conclusions of the request from the municipality of Breil-sur-Roya seeking to order the company SMACL assurances SA to maintain or resume execution of the contracts.”
A risk of “permanently ruining the municipality”
“This means that in the event of a disaster in one of the 70 municipal buildings, the financial consequences would be entirely borne by the municipality, which would permanently ruin our town hall, whose budgetary situation is already fragile”comments Sébastien Olharan. Who decided to sound the alarm in a format as original as it is grating: the young mayor has just issued an order prohibiting natural disasters and any element likely to cause damage to municipal buildings.
Articles 2 and 3 of this document, deliberately ironic, detail its outlines. “Fires, floods, ground movements, earthquakes, landslides, storms, snow, hail, violent winds, avalanches, water damage, electrical damage, likely to damage municipal buildings are prohibited. For rainwater runoff, at the origin of the torrential floods, a diversion route is proposed outside the territory of the municipality”we can read.
Ditto in terms of damage committed by people in the flesh: “Human activities likely to harm communal property such as riots, terrorism, vandalism, theft, involuntary damage are also prohibited.”
Illustrate the powerlessness of municipalities
Legitimizing his action by the wish “to illustrate the powerlessness of municipalities in the face of the French insurance system, and to alert people to the seriousness of our situation”the mayor of Breil also indicates that he has contacted the central pricing office (the administrative authority responsible for guaranteeing the insurance obligation), to find a concrete way to insure his municipal buildings during the year 2025 .
“This would nevertheless be done under very unfavorable conditions, whether in terms of the amount of contributions, the deductibles applied or the extent of guarantees which would be reduced to the strict minimum”he specifies. Considering that it is urgent to reform the French community insurance system, “without which municipalities will no longer be able to carry out the public service missions assigned to them, and public property, which is the heritage of all citizens, will be threatened.”
