“I decided, in order to illustrate the helplessness of municipalities in the face of the French insurance system, and in order to alert people to the seriousness of our situation, to issue a municipal decree prohibiting natural disasters and any element likely to cause damage. on municipal buildingsannounced Thursday January 2 in a press release, Sébastien Olharan, the LR mayor of Breil-sur-Roya, in the Alpes-Maritimes. “Faced with an inconceivable and unjust situation, endangering our municipality, our public heritage and taxpayers’ money, I am reduced to this absurd response.“, he continues.
The municipality was assured “for more than 20 years with Smacl Assurances“, but the mayor received a letter from this company in June announcing that it “terminated its contracts on December 31, 2024“, relates Sébastien Olharan in his press release. According to him, it is a “decision [qui] is a direct and obvious consequence of storm Alex“which ravaged part of the Alpes-Maritimes in October 2020.”Part of the compensation was paid a few weeks” before receiving this letter, notes the city councilor.
The municipality then launched a public market, but “no insurer wanted to make an offer. And none of those we have contacted since have agreed to assure usr”, deplores the mayor of Breil-sur-Roya. “In desperation, faced with the risk of not being able to operate certain services such as daycare and schools from January 1, 2025, the municipality of Breil-sur-Roya filed an interim order with the Administrative Court to force its insurer to maintain its guarantees for an additional period of one year This procedure has produced results.“, explains the elected official in his press release.
In fact, on Friday December 26, the insurer sent a letter to the municipality in which it explained that it “agreed to maintain for one year the guarantees, in particular civil liability and functional protection of agents and elected officials of the town hall“But there still remains the question of property damage, that is to say, the insurance of municipal buildings.”for which we have no solution“, explains Thursday January 2 on France Inter, Sébastien Olharan. Contacted by France Inter, the insurer did not respond.
For damage to property, the administrative court – in an order consulted by Agence Radio France – rejected the municipality’s request on Monday. Sébastien Olharan considers that the arguments of the summary judge are “incomprehensible“. Since Wednesday, Breil-sur-Roya has been “without insurance on its 70 municipal buildings. This means that in the event of a disaster on one of them, the financial consequences would be entirely the responsibility of the municipality, which would permanently ruin our town hall, whose budgetary situation is already fragile.“, he criticizes.
The councilor nevertheless specifies that he has contacted the central pricing office, an administrative authority responsible for guaranteeing the insurance obligation. He “is working on a solution to allow municipal buildings in Breil-sur-Roya to be insured during the year 2025” more “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 emphasizes.
In the meantime, the mayor hopes that his symbolic municipal decree “will make insurers aware of their heavy responsibility and will encourage political decision-makers to take this issue head on“.
