The mairie must need these letters to gather the impacted buildings coordinates. The more there will be, the easier the recognition by the authorities for a “catastrophe naturelle”. Until this recognition (a list of cities will be published), this will not be considered by your insurance, but, as you indeed only have ten days after the recognition to alert your insurance company, doing this later within the appropriate delay, using the “Lettre Recommandée avec AR” is useful. Do not use an AR letter for the mairie: this is useless.
Please note: I think there have been cases where declaring too early (before the recognition) has be detremental to the owner, as the impact was considered by the insurance as being anterior to the catastrophe. So, be careful.
The state of “catastrophe naturelle” states a date. The fact that it takes week to the mairie or the state to actually edit the paperwork doesn’t change the date you’ll get on the “arrêté préfectoral”. So it is simply illegal for an insurance company to try to avoid paying for that reason. Basically, if there is a massive hail storm on the 19th of October and the decree of “catastrophe naturelle” is published on the 30th of October that decree will state that the events took place on the 19th so the actual publication date is irrelevant as long as this is published. But roberto is correct to assume that some companies are trying their best to avoid paying (companies like directassurance for example are known for dodgy claim processing behavious) but this doesn’t it any more legal and therefore the only date that matters is the date the event actually happened, nothing else 
I am particulary interested in this discussion and just really need to ‘let off steam’. Our garden and pool was completely submerged by water during floods (in February 2021 during the lockdown). The living room and dining room were also affected. This is our second home (which we have owned for 15 years) but unfortunately, we were completely stranded in the UK due to Covid. We alerted our insurance company very quickly and we0re advised to do nothing until the problem could be properly assessed. Our French neighbours provided us with photographs and video footage which we forwarded to demonstrate our situation. The insurance company arranged for what I would describe as a ‘loss adjuster’ to assess the damage. This was not possible until June, when we were vaccinated and permitted to travel. He assessed the damage and advised us to replace a number of house and garden items i.e. rug, lawnmover, tools and the garden gate (which was completely battered and broken). He instructed us to provide receipts, which we dutifully did. The pool pump also needed to be replaced. He gave us the ‘go ahead’ to get the pool and pump ‘repaired’. Subsequently, some time later, the insurance company wrote to us advising that they would not reinburse us, because, they said, we were not in an area identified as a ‘catastrophe naturelle’. We contacted the Maire, who tried to help and wrote off centrally, on our behalf, but seemingly to no avail. We took it up with our insurance company, but they just wouldn’t budge or even compromise. We now have some cracks in walls … Increasingly, I fail to understand what we are actually insured for? We have made no previous claims but our premium has been increased … just completely mystified by this policy and feel helpless to enact any remediation for our loss. It seems assumed that we have to ‘suck it up’. Thought about taking some legal advice…but it all seems so complicated. Any advice/comment gratefully received. Thanks for reading.
IIRC, the fact you have simply made a claim entitles the insurance company - even if they don’t pay out - to adjust your premium accordingly.
@fabien would know if that is correct.
Unfortunately @graham is correct, filing a claim, even if they don’t end up paying it out, is considered a claim. In France the value of a claim matters not it’s only the number of claims (and their “type” - flood, fire, etc. but that’s a subtlety for another day). So they’ve increased the premium is consequence of a claim being filed. May I ask who you’re with and the estimated amount of the claim? Also, about that crack in the wall, which wall are we talking about, one of the main property wall or something like a border wall? Usually you are insured against floods, no need for the state of “natural disaster” to be covered so, unless you were not insured for flood (which seems unlikely) I think the claim simply was not processed correctly. In order to fix that it gets legal and if you are not with a broker it gets tricky though. To try and fix things you should write a registered letter to your current insurance agent or person who sold you the policy explaining the circumstances. Make sure you pin point the flood and damages caused by the flood (insurers don’t care about “details” like the fact that the mayor may think you should be refunded or a letter from the mairie, etc. they don’t even read it unless this is a legally binding document like an “arrêté préfectoral de catastrophe naturelle”). Make sure you label that letter as a “réclamation” and in the letter make sure you make some “ask” and make sure they are super duper clear (bullet point at the beginning AND the end of the letter so that even a 5 years old understands the goal of the letter). In your case the claims / ask are =>
- You are not happy with the claim being rejected and would like the insurer to review the situation
- You want to know the legal reason for refusing to cover a claim for flood when your policy states you are covered for flooding and want them to pin point which article of the terms and conditions or “conditions particulières” (policy) allows them to not pay out
- Following the flooding you’ve noticed some cracks in the wall that you think is a direct consequence of the same claim and would like this to be added on the “claim” once reviewed
- You want them to confirm the cover you have for “expert d’assuré” so that you can run a “contre expertise” (second independent expert opinion)
- You want the details of their arbitrator should they fail to fix the issue
All needs to be written in French and should mention things like the “code des assurances” and ideally some details from their terms & conditions so it needs to be looked at more closely.
Hope that helps?
Dear Graham and Fabien,
Thank you so much for your replies. I take on board what you both say about the premium, which if we had received however small, some level of compensation it would have been easier to ‘swallow’. We also recognise that we are not resident throughout the year (Brexit not helping either) and that has impact. But, we did not physically complete any paperwork or documents that constituted ‘a claim’ as one might expect to complete in the UK. I assume they received the loss adjuster’s report and subsequently refused any compensation. What is even more infuriating, is our house borders a tributary of the River Garonne and when we took out the insurance policy, the agent actually visited the property to assess the policy charge. They are now saying that we live on a ‘non-constructible flood plain’, therefore the impact of any climactic events in our policy cannot be applied! The estimated compensation from the loss adjuster was £5,000€. We are insured with Generali. They reluctantly agreed to give us a copy of the report quite recently, when we again, tried to tackle the issue of compensation. The cracks in the walls are to two upstairs exterior bedroom walls.
I am very grateful for your help and any further advice also, very gratefully received.
This sounds like it could be similar to the other thread on here where someone accidentally found out their insurer didn’t cover right-hand drive cars, where the insurer had been told it was a right hand drive car when the policy was originally taken and the policy continued to renew for years without notice of any change.
It would be nice to check your policy for flood plain exclusions, also to check is your property in an area that since the policy was taken out, was declared a flood plain.
If it was a known flood plain when their agent came at the start of the policy to assess it and they still agreed to insure it then if there is justice in France, surely they can’t deny liability?
I could imagine it could get a little stickier if the area was designated a flood plain after the start of the policy, if there is or is now, an exclusion of coverage for this.
Whilst pursuing this as Fabien suggests, I am wondering if another imsurer would be prepared to quote to take you on at your renewal? I am thinking the process of getting backup quotes from other insurers might also be revealing.
Please let us know how it goes but something does not feel right about this rejection.
Thank you Karen for your thoughts. You make some very good points which I shall pursue.
Hi All and @fabien
We too have had a large crack appear on our house this year - so much so that I cannot now close the bedroom window alongside!
This is in Carmaux, Tarn 81.
We have contacted the Mairie and asked them about the ‘catastroph naturelle’ and they have come back to us saying that they are likely to declare this in the first semestre of 2023.
Do you advise us that we should still contact our insurance company now - including a copy of the Mairie’s response?
Cheers
Carl
Evening,
You can always try to get the insurance company involved but, by the look of it as you’ve described it, I don’t think they’ll accept the claim. Without a clear cause a claim is considered as “property maintenance” and falls back onto the owner’s liability alone unfortunately.
Kind regards,
Hi @fabien - Well, our Mairie has now officially declared the ‘catastroph naturelle’ and issued the relevant notices and paperwork (yesterday).
Our insurance company (Novelia) seem to indicate that we need to make our claim through our Broker - which, I am sure, is you? We cannot find anything on their website as to how to go about making a claim.
Can we contact you ‘off board’ to discuss please? By phone?
Many thanks!
of course, you can file the claim directly over email through hello at fabfrenchinsurance dot com and we’ll start the conversation and will open the claim
Many thanks Fabien - will compile the file this evening and send it over. We are currently at the house in Carmaux so can take up-to-date photographs of the damage.
Where are you?
We’re still waiting.
Hi Teresa - we are in the Tarn (81) in Carmaux. The declaration was only issued yesterday afternoon.
Thanks. We’re in the Dordogne.
You may recall, I posted on this thread last year expressing my frustration at not being compensated for flood damage. To my surprise, I have been contacted by the Maire (2 years later) providing me with the necessary documentation asserting that our house and was indeed affected by a Catastrophe Naturelle. I have forwarded this to the our insurers who say they have now contacted their ‘expert’ and will advise us accordingly. Previous experience leads me to feel less than hopeful, as I am sure they will wriggle out of it, if they can…any advice would be gratefully received. Who is the ‘expert’ for example? Is it normal to wait 2 years for a declaration of Catastrophe Naturelle? I am very grateful to the Maire for not forgetting us, however.
‘Experts’ are appointed by the court under whose jurisdiction you come, to evaluate situations specific to their area of competence.
Catastrophe naturelle has to be declared by government so it always takes a while.
Thank you for your reply.