The Most Common Insurance Claims in the Industry: Water Damage Tops the List

One of the most significant incidents covered by an insurance policy was lost profits. There were 1,083 cases throughout the country. Therefore, throughout the year one took place every eight hours. But the cost was not lower for companies in the sector, which paid an average of 61,339 euros for each of them, which implies a total figure of 22.3 million. Another noteworthy coverage in the secondary sector is legal defense, which companies resorted to on 7,054 occasions over the past year. For insurers, it cost just over three million euros, at a rate of 8,453 euros for each case.

thefts

After the damage caused by the fires, the most expensive cause of an incident for firms in the sector was atmospheric phenomena. 35,442 cases were recorded in 2022 and generated global costs of 134 million euros. Its frequency was almost 15 minutes. Next comes the theft and the damage caused by a theft, one about every twenty minutes, with a global amount of 112 million.

Water is the great enemy of insurers because the damage caused by what is colloquially known as leaks is the most numerous in homes, businesses and neighboring communities. So much so that last year there were 529,770 mishaps in insured residences in the province of Valencia -one every 59 seconds- and almost a third of them, specifically 189,295, came from leaks detected in homes: one every 2.47 minutes , according to the latest data from the employers’ association that groups these service companies Unespa. This is 35.7% of the total.

In Spain as a whole, leaks are responsible for 3 million insurance incidents in homes. The second cause, far behind, is glass breakage, with 1.1 million. These are the mishaps that together cost the insurers the most, with 1,231 and 305 million, respectively. Although they are much less frequent (75,837), the next cause is fires (264 million). The fourth is atmospheric phenomena (430,293 and 252, in each case) and the fifth, thefts, of which 314,314 were recorded last year throughout Spain at a cost of 250 million for companies in the sector.

Trade

In the case of commerce, industry and neighboring communities, the document does not give details by autonomous region, but it does offer data at the national level and in all of them water damage is the most numerous and the most onerous. For example, 158,768 were recorded in commerce, one every 3 minutes and 19 seconds, with a total cost of 93 million euros, at a rate of 255,215 euros per day. In this type of establishment, the other main incidents are glass (73,655), electrical damage (51,731), theft (33,985) and atmospheric phenomena (33,464). In terms of amount, the second most expensive is fires (58 million), followed by theft (48).

In the province of Valencia, mishaps in shops were recorded last year 31,394 cases. It was one every 16 minutes and the daily cost amounted to 50,017 euros. In the case of robberies, there were 1,947 incidents, every four and a half hours. Only in this case does the report provide a disaggregated report.

Communities of owners

In the communities of owners, again, water appears as the main cause of ills in their facilities, with 917,000 of the 1.41 million mishaps that were recorded last year. Payments amounted to 350 million euros out of a total of 610. The second most frequent cause was atmospheric phenomena, with 175,291, although they only caused damage for a value of 66 million. In third place is civil liability, that is, damage to third parties, with 83,000 incidents and a cost of 62 million for insurers. Glass breakage occupies the fourth position, with 70,000 cases and a cost of 17.4 million.

On the other hand, the Unespa report records that 76% of the homes in the province of Valenca are insured, far from the 93% of Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa, but above 67% of Castelló or 70% of Alicante. and, of course, 54% of Cuenca, which occupies the last position.

22 million for the loss of profit in the industry

jc valencia