Insurers were counting on 280 million euros in damage. The bill is finally twice as salty. According to the professional federation on Tuesday, the damage linked to the urban violence which followed the death of a teenager killed on June 27 by a police officer will cost insurers 650 million.
Nine tenths “of the cost of this urban violence concerns the 3,900 property of professionals and local communities affected”, said the president of France insurers Florence Lustman, quoted in a press release. The rest mainly concerns damage suffered by individuals for their personal vehicles. The federation counts 11,300 declarations of claims linked to the violence which followed the death of Nahel, 17, killed on June 27 during a road check in Nanterre.
A third of damage concerns local authorities
In detail, claims on professional property represent 55% of the 650 million euros mentioned, and those on the property of local authorities 35%, specifies France Assureurs. As of July 1, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire had asked insurers to extend the declaration deadlines, reduce deductibles and quickly compensate professionals who were victims of the riots, towards whom the banks were also called upon to show of understanding.
The professional federation had invited its members three days later to “reduce” the deductibles for the “small independent traders hardest hit” by the urban violence. It has been heard by certain mutualists such as Covea (MMA, MAAF and GMF brands), Macif but also the bank insurers BPCE, Crédit Agricole or Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale (which brings together 14 of the 18 federations of the mutualist group as well as CIC), who announced measures for the victims. Axa, Generali and Société Générale had also followed suit.
Degradations very different from 2005
“The nature of the claims linked to the violence of recent days is therefore very different from what our country experienced in 2005”, adds Florence Lustman. At the time, damage and fires to vehicles had represented more than 80% of claims for a total cost of 204 million euros.
It remains to be seen whether insurers will react in the same way as before. The following year, an arm wrestling pitted them against the government on the question of whether the responsibility of the state was engaged in urban violence. In 2006, the mutual insurance of local authorities (SMACL), on the front line this year, had for example initiated “contentious proceedings” against the State for lack of an amicable agreement on compensation for urban violence in November 2005. .