Chloe Glover (Reporter)
GOVERNMENT aid has been approved to help flood-wrecked communities.
Ministers voted to give financial support to ’emergency zones’ in Malaga, Cadiz and Huelva, which were hit by deluges that left two people dead.
According to a government document, individual flood victims will be able to claim financial support alongside regional governments and businesses.
It has pledged to pay in between 50 to 100% costs to repair property damage up to a maximum of €10,320 and a maximum of €15,120 for a home irreparably damaged.
Up to €2,580 may be available to cover damage to belongings.
Flood victims will also get tax breaks and Seguridad Social discounts.
Businesses including farms can claim up to €8,000 each, while expenses incurred through emergency service callouts will be covered.
Regions in other parts of the country that were also hit by floods, such as Castellón, Valencia, Alicante and Badajoz have been offered the same help.
The total amount of aid that will be given out is not yet known, as regional governments have not yet submitted damage estimates.
Who came up with these weird figures? Fifteen thousand, one hundred and twenty euros for a completely knackered house? Wonder what the odd one hundred and twenty is for? Maybe a Ryanair flight out of it?
It’s all fantasy funds anyway, wouldn’t fancy being a poor soul attempting to claim any of it.
For my flat in Spain I have a building insurance contract with liberty Seguros called “Liberty Quality Hogar”. In their advertisement they wrote that in Spain any owner of such a insurance policy is additionally insured against damage caused by natural desasters like flood, hurricane, earthquake… The latter insurance is being offered by the Spanish Government and all private building insurances have to pay a lump sum into this state owned natural desaster insurance.
Therefor, who can explain, whether the victims of the Costa del Sol flood are entitled to be paid by this state insurance and how much will be paid?
The true question is: will anyone be paid?
Wolfgang, you may have an insurance policy with specific clauses, but that does not mean they will always compensate you for those events. In the case of a earthquake, say, the company can easily blame resulting damage on defective materials or building quality. There’s always a get-out. A friend in Marbella has a million euro property that he purchased in 2015, and that was flooded in the recent rains. He made a claim, and despite having specific cover for water damage to the property, he has just been told that the claim was refused on the basis of a structural inspection that found that the drainage around the property was insufficient and the materials were “defective”. This may be true, to an extent, but he also had a surveyors report prior to purchase saying the opposite. All meaningless unfortunately. This issue is not specific to Spain, of course, but these flooding events seem to get more and more serious on on the Costa del Sol every time they arrive after the summer, and as such are making insurance companies issue many more claim rejections, even on so called “quality builds” (alas the more you pay for a property in Spain does not always equate to higher quality). After my friends property is fixed he tells me it’s going on the market.