The insurance industry is expecting damages from the last few days of storms alone that could exceed the billion mark. However, this only represents a small part of the actual damage, as many people are not insured against flood or storm damage. For Wifo expert Franz Sinabell, compulsory insurance against natural hazards would therefore be conceivable.
In the case of damage to the property, home or household insurance will sometimes cover damages of between 5,000 and 10,000 euros. Those affected also usually only receive 20 percent of the damage from the disaster fund. If you want to be on the safe side, you have to take out appropriate insurance, such as against disasters – or in agriculture against hail damage and flooding. “But the fact is that most people are not insured, and as a result most are left with a large part of the damage and have to finance it themselves,” said Sinabell on Friday in the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal” on ORF radio.
Many of those affected are therefore facing a real emergency. “We should therefore think about improving the system,” said the Wifo economist. According to Sinabell, we need to look abroad for this, as there are models in Belgium and Switzerland, for example, that work well. For example, several natural hazards could be bundled into one insurance policy and turned into a natural hazard insurance policy.
This would of course increase the premiums, but at the same time it would also create a legal claim to compensation for damages. It is difficult to estimate how much the premiums would increase, but calculations based on similar considerations in Germany have resulted in additional costs of an average of 150 euros per household per year. It should be borne in mind, however, that households in areas at risk would have to pay higher premiums than households in less at risk areas. For Sinabell, these expected additional costs for compulsory insurance against natural hazards are the main reason why no party in Austria has this type of insurance in its program.
