When bad weather causes floods or floods, material damage is virtually inevitable. In these situations, the most important step is to inform insurance immediately so that it can activate the necessary procedures and ensure the payment of compensation. However, it is essential to verify that the contracted policy covers this type of damage.
Not all insurance include protections for natural phenomena such as floods. Therefore, it is essential to carefully analyze the coverage of the contract at the time of hiring. Thus, when you hire insurance for the home or car, you must ensure that it protects against the damage caused by natural disasters such as storms and floods.
If your home or car is affected for bad weather, you should ensure that the policy includes two essential covers: own damage, which support specific losses, and natural phenomena coverage. If these covers are not included, you will have to support the damage to you.
With regard to the responsibility of municipalities, extreme meteorological phenomena are mostly outside the control of the city councils. These situations are generally unpredictable in terms of size and impact, which makes it difficult to prove that the municipality could have avoided damage. To assign responsibilities to the municipality, it would be necessary to demonstrate a direct connection between their actions (or lack of them) and the damage caused.
Insurers are only responsible for what was agreed in the customer contract. Since not all include natural disasters damage to their roofs, it is crucial to predict this need when choosing the policy. For example, to protect your home, it is advisable to opt for multi -crush insurance that, in addition to covering the property, may include protection for housing filling.
According to, many policies already offer basic coverage, such as fire damage or explosion, but it is important to add others such as water damage. The latter may include problems such as ruptures, clogging, and overflow. In the case of natural disasters, multirrisos insurance often covers storms, floods, land granting and rubble removal, but these conditions are necessary in the contract.
For regions with higher risk of seismic shaking, such as the Azores or the Algarve, it is recommended to include a specific coverage for seismic phenomena. This type of coverage, usually optional, protects against damage caused by earthquakes, troops or volcanic eruptions. However, the price may be higher for older properties or located in high risk areas.
In the case of automobile insurance, protection also depends on contracted coverage. Civil liability insurance, mandatory by law, does not cover your vehicle damage caused by natural phenomena. For this, it is necessary to add coverage such as storms, floods, tree fall or landlings.
When participating in a claim to the insurer, he must respect the deadlines stipulated in the policy, or, in their absence, participate up to eight days after learning the damage. It is necessary to include detailed information about the occurrence, such as date, time, causes and consequences, as well as present evidence, such as photographs, videos or testimonies. If necessary, you can apply for intervention reports from firefighters or certificates from the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
After participation, the insurer sends an expert to evaluate the damage and calculate compensation. This process may take, especially in cases of flooding, where it is necessary to wait for the water to download to identify all losses. However, insurers have, as a rule, 30 days to complete the process and propose a customer compensation value.
Also read:
