cars, roofs, when the bill increases

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Céline Leclerc will remember the night of June 13 for a long time. In Orne, that day, hailstones as big as golf balls fell on its roof and windows. The storm is unleashed. “I was all alone at home and I felt really vulnerable. Really, it was impressive,” she remembers. Today, its completely dented shutters need to be replaced. Its facade is riddled with holes. “My fear is that there will be infiltration and that it will accumulate. Because we are still in a country where there is a lot of water. And then the frost that will arrive and all these phenomena make me fear that the restoration risks crumbling,” she confides. The cost of the damage, 11,000 euros, is almost entirely covered by his insurance.

But this is not the case for everyone. Hit by the same storm, a few kilometers away, a farmer is far from seeing all his damage covered. Its roofs have been pierced by hailstones, its machines are found underwater. To restore everything, the bill climbs to 30,000 euros. But since the buildings are old, the insurance will only reimburse him for half. “It represents an area of ​​150 square meters. It is a room which housed the workshop and milk storage section. Once we have arrived to settle down and recount the facts a little, it is still quite hard to take in”indicates Cyprien Hervieu, AOP dairy farmer. But that’s not all. The dairy farmer lost much more. His wheat harvest was completely destroyed, with up to 50,000 euros in damage not reimbursed because he was not insured for hail. “We thought we would never be hit by hail”he notes.

Costs can even reach peaks for municipalities. The town of Plaisir (Yvelines), in Île-de-France, was hit by hail on May 3. Tennis courts with leaky roofs found themselves flooded. Bad surprise for the city. The parts of the roof, neither metal nor zinc, are not covered, despite an insurance contract of 130,000 euros per year. It is also impossible to have the natural disaster regime recognized, financed by national solidarity: hail is excluded. “It’s completely our responsibility, so 200,000 euros is something important, especially when it’s not in the budget, it’s a real subject, but it had to be done”regrets Joséphine Kollmannsberger, mayor (LR) of Plaisir.

The damage has continued to increase in recent years. A situation which risks getting even worse. From 67 days of hail per year today, France would increase to 92 by 2050. So, can this risk still be insured in the future? Insurers want to be optimistic.

After the flood in Île-de-France last spring, Allianz installed three car dent repair plants with a gantry to quickly and precisely identify each hail impact, and specialized craftsmen capable of carrying out very rapid repairs. Ephemeral factories must make it possible to optimize costs, the only way to limit price increases. “I am not saying that prices will not increase further. Our challenge is to ensure that we repair vehicles quickly and at the best cost”declares Sylvain Lagasse, Director of automobile compensation services at Allianz France.

This will indeed be the case according to a specialized firm. With the increase in bad weather, car and home insurance premiums are expected to increase by up to 8% next year.