Filenews 6 July 2021 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Pending a record of the damages and the amount of insurance claims is the Association of Insurance Companies from the large fire that broke out last Saturday in mountainous Limassol and Larnaca and cost human lives and destruction of property.
THE director general of SAEK Andreas Athanasiadis told "F" that it will take a few weeks before the damage is fully recorded and has already sent instructions to its members – insurance companies to proceed with the assessment of the compensation they will pay to those affected after the deadly fire in which some 55 square kilometres were destroyed. At least for the first period it will be done almost every week, so that the Association has as complete a picture as possible.
Experience from previous cases, such as floods or the disaster caused by Marie, has shown that claims for insurance claims begin to arrive after about a week. The issue is after recording the destruction of property in residences, warehouses, workplaces, cars, agricultural machinery, to assess what the insurance coverage was and what amounts the beneficiaries are entitled to. That is, the size of the insurance coverage that a residence can have, if the contents are insured, i.e. furniture and equipment, depending on the premiums and terms of the contract. Therefore, the compensation will be according to the terms of the insurance policy depending on the amount of the premium paid by the beneficiary. Usually the first residence if a loan has been made through a bank, in most cases there is insurance covering fire damage and beyond the house there is also insurance coverage of the contents.
After a few days it will be shown how many houses were insured and burned, how much will be the average cost of compensation for homes that have suffered total destruction. Market officials note that the housing premium is necessary, either for fire damage or an earthquake, but nonetheless coverage is not included in household priorities, even in cases where the risks are increased. Insurance policies usually include risks of fire, lightning, boiler explosion or LPG used for domestic purposes. Additional coverages include loss or damage as a result of an earthquake or volcanic eruption, storm, storm, flood, malicious damage, break-in of water pipes or overflow of water tanks, water escape, Fire resulting from burning forests, bushes or land deforestation, fees of architects, lawyers and assessors as a result of loss or damage from the above risks.
Based on past disasters, such as Marie, one of the largest in Cyprus, insurance companies paid more than €300 million for the project. and a significant share of this money was received by EAC. For the natural disaster in 2015 there were 1,193 claims the cost of compensation was close to €5 million.
