Great Practical Information - A Must Read!

General Discussion
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I thought I’d share a regular newsletter I subscribed to some time time ago and have always found really useful. It’s published by BH Assurances in the Charente (16) - miles away from me and I’ve got absolutely no vested interest in them - bar their newsletter!

Here’s some links / pdf downloads:

June 2019 Newsletter - BH Assurances.pdf (543.6 KB)

HMRC France-Individual.pdf (148.0 KB)

Subscribe to future Newsletters here

I hope you find the info useful.

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Useful info on upcoming mutuelle changes to dental etc cover, thanks Simon

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@fabien , do we need a newsletter?!

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In ‘we’ do you mean the Forum in general?

Could be a good idea - but a pain for someone to have to compile it!

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News are quite active in the insurance business these days but it also means that the business itself is quite intense… happy to help aye (if I’m allowed for some Scottish words here? :wink: ).

For information here are the current ‘hot news’ in the insurance business:

  • Legislation is tightening around builders and even more around project managers in the construction business in France with an EU ‘norm’ called the BIM (Building Information Modeling). The direct consequence is that banks always ask for the “domage ouvrage” insurance to finance renovation work or to build a new house and they check that everyone has a 10 years insurance (Décenale).
  • Another direct consequence of the BIM is that all builders are now tied to their ‘obligation of advice’ and, in case of an issue, even if that issue was directly asked by the customer (usage of certain materials that are not ‘state of the art’ for example) the builder can (and will) be held responsible for this (for 10 years after he/she finished the job) except if he/she (builder) specifically stated on his quote or invoice that he/she was against this (did not recommended this) and that the customer agrees (the customer has to sign that statement).
  • The ‘0 reste à charge’ => Basically, from now to 2022 all professionals (dentists, opticians, etc.) will have to offer you an option where you don’t have anything to pay… given that you have a mutuelle that’s ‘0 reste à charge’ compatible (it’s kind of a smoak screen for now to be honest has the ‘0 reste à charge’ already exists in a way, for example you can ask for metal crown at the dentist and get that for close to 0 right now and the 0 reste à charge will just make sure that it’s 0 and not 10e but the ceramic crown you want will still be ‘unchartered’ in terms of pricing as each dentist can still charge you more than 1000€ if they so desire :wink: ).
  • Brexit (of course) => It’s actually not that much of a big deal as far as the insurances are concerned. The only major impact is in regard to the access with the French social security. People that have already filled S1s are already in check because their ‘rights’ have been converted from the UK to France so they’re okay. The one that are ‘self employed’ (gîte business or simply registered as doing some business in France with some turnover even if very low) are good to go as well as they are paying the social security through that buisiness. People that are employed will be good to go as well because they’ll get into the system within 3 months max. The retired or inactive newcomers are the one that will suffer the most of this but, thanks to PUMA, if their revenues are low they’ll be granted access for free to the system and thanks to the AME they’ll be taken in charge in the meantime for free as well because in France we don’t let people die on the sideway simply because they cannot afford the hospital :wink:

Other stuff happened (Foreign insurers - LPS - tightening rules, new brokerage rules to tighten the obligation of advice and formalisation of it, etc.) but that’s not directly impacting the customer so I’d say that’s a story for another day :stuck_out_tongue:

Let me know if you want to know more about any of these topics?

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Fabien,
can you pls give more detail on BIM & insurance because I & my colleges working on BIM projects do not understand.
As a Works Project Manager I fully understand the process /need of verification of the various insurances & garanties, etc etc, but this has been the norm for a good few years now, but as a BIM Manager I don’t. I can easily incorporate the insurance documents & details into the GED of the models but have never been ask to do so & never found this aspect in a tender / scope of BIM management even working on Nation state or International projects.
Can you please explain the BIM part as maybe I / we BIM Managers are missing out on an obligation.

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For anyone wondering what BIM is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwRedl2c2g
and this is what we do with our BIM models https://vimeo.com/289667273

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Wow - that is seriously cool stuff Warren!

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Hi Fabien is actually on holiday at the moment but I’m sure he will reply when he gets back!

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Hi @Wozza, thanks for adding up some extra insights and some high level experience… you’re not missing out anything actually. In France both the décennale (10 years) insurance and the “Dommage Ouvrage” are mandatory since January 1978. The is the theory, the issue is that, despite the almost half a century long obligation there are many uninsured buildings (Dommage Ouvrage is missing) and a lot of uninsured builders (missing the 10 years insurance). The BIM doesn’t come with any particular obligation except from the fact that it’s legally enforcing your obligation both in terms of advice (to your customers) and in terms of compliance (you need to make sure that your sub-contractors, co-workers, etc. are all in compliance). That last bit is the one bearing the more impact as some project manager were working with uninsured builders ‘not knowing’ that they were not insured… with the BIM ‘legislation’ in France that’s no longer an excuse and the project manager becomes legally liable for the builders / sub-contractors he is working with. To be completely fair that was already the case before but they were some ambiguities which allowed some to overview some aspects of the construction project… that’s no longer possible now (or at your own risks). All that being said, I don’t think any of this applies on Nation wide projects as they were probably limpio even 10 years a ago as public projects have always had very strict specifications (supra legal specifications).

Sorry about the very long post, hope this can bring some light (if needed) on my post?

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@fabien, thanks for the reply so I’ve nothing to worry about as the company has very stringent checks in place concerning contracting / sub-contracting & compliance.
As for giving advice that’s all part of the job & very happily do so, after all we are selling contracts for BIM exploitation ensuring a streamlined approach to works & maintenance energy savings etc.

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As Simon is ‘indisposed’ I thought I would post the next newsletter…

June 2019 Newsletter - BH Assurances.pdf (543.6 KB)

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