Expected for many months by insurers, the additional premium which finances the natural disaster regime of French insurers will be increased from January 1, 2025, from 12% to 20% for homes, according to a decree published Thursday, December 27 in the Journal official.
This general increase, applicable from January 1, 2025, aims to revive a system in deficit since 2015. It will also increase the additional premium from 12% to 20% for professional insurance contracts, from 6% to 9% that on theft and fire contracts, thus constituting an additional windfall of 1.2 billion euros per year, according to the Ministry of the Economy.
This plan, which costs on average around 25 euros per year per household, will increase “to 41 euros” according to the calculations of Franck Le Vallois, general director of France Assureur, for whom this increase will “restore balance” to the system.
Faced with the increase in the frequency of storms, droughts and other floods due to climate change, the natural disaster regime has been in deficit since 2015.
By granting an increase to 20% on the majority of contracts in 2025, Bercy is roughly aligned with the recommendations of France Assureurs and the Caisse centrale de réassurance (CCR) which respectively advocated 18% and 19% from 2024, the CCR in anticipation of an increase to 22% in the future.
A deficit diet
“We have been raising this point for a long time,” notes Antoine Quantin, director of reinsurance and public funds at the CCR, who considers this news “as a good thing to perpetuate the regime.”
However, this increase in insurance comes against a backdrop of still high inflation, at 3.5% year-on-year in November according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). “We are seeing a very limited evolution in terms of contributions,” maintains Franck Le Vallois, who prefers to illustrate the increase with a comparison: “This represents the equivalent of the price of a stamp per month. »
“We are waiting for inflation to decrease before increasing the contribution,” we explain to the ministry, to justify the date of entry into force of the decree, January 1, 2025. But Bercy admits the urgency of the measure: “The situation of exhaustion of reserves does not allow us to wait any longer if we want to continue to cover the French. »
The bad weather in the fall considerably increased the expenses of insurers and reinsurers. “The “cat-nat” [natural disaster] regime is a French exception which protects our fellow citizens from natural risk,” insists Franck Le Vallois. “However, this regime is at risk since it is structurally deficit. »
The CCR, for example, estimated at 550 million euros the cost of floods covered under the natural disaster regime after the floods which affected Hauts-de-France in November, when the cost of droughts in was estimated at 900 million euros for 2023 by the same organization.