By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Watching my colleagues broadcast their report from outside houses and businesses that were caught in the fire live, I couldn’t stop thinking about one of the many issues that is coming up around here, which is that of insuring households and businesses against natural disasters.

The figures are disappointing. Only about 15% of homes are insured against natural disasters. A percentage that shows the inadequacy of the measure of its reduction LIGHT by 10% for those who insure their homes. In fact, the insurance should be cumulative for earthquakes, floods and fires. In my personal opinion, the Ministry of Finance must reconsider this specific measure. But I also wonder that if someone was not convinced yesterday by seeing the fires destroying houses in the urban fabric (Vrilissia, Penteli), when and how can they be convinced?

The same of course applies to small and medium-sized enterprises, whose insurance rate against natural disasters is perhaps even less than 15%. For the largest ones, with a turnover of more than €2 million, it has been voted mandatory insurance but the law according to the market players has not yet been activated.

Talking to insurance market players, they told me that calls from property and business owners about the insurance issue have increased in recent days but “it does after every natural disaster and then it subsides” they added meaningfully.

Why should we insure ourselves since we have the state, some will support.

The state’s money does not cover all the damage someone suffers, it must be supplemented by a low-interest loan with a public guarantee. Plus they arrive late. Apart from the first aid money, the rest of the resources need to wait. Last year’s victims of Daniel are still receiving money. In addition, there is the possibility that at some point the state will not have (especially in Greece it has happened before) to intervene after a disaster. Of course, he should take care and a special code in the budget has already been provided, especially if the Greek Ministry of Finance proves to be correct in its analysis that climate destabilization will have a cost of €200 billion in the Greek economy by 2100. Almost an entire GDP!

On the other hand, the compensation process from the insurance company is very short. Only a certificate from the fire department is required in this case (since we are talking about a fire) that the house or business has been damaged. An expert opinion immediately follows and the money is credited in 10 to 15 days according to the insurance companies.

Somewhere here I should also add car insurance against fire, since damaged cars on the sides of the roads were also a very common phenomenon. 60-70% of car owners are also insured for fire. But isn’t it a shame that the remaining 30-40% doesn’t even get a euro when the specific premium costs between €20-25 a year?

There is no scientist who does not argue that because of the climate crisis, natural disasters will not become more frequent and more intense. So we too should be “concerned” and protect ourselves and our property (and insurance is one way), but at the same time the state should also give brave incentives to do so.