3 years to compensate victims of fires…foreign experts to scrutinize ins and outs of incidents

.The Deputy Chairman of the Federation of insurance and reinsurance companies, Hassan Khelifati, has revealed that the financial compensation of those victims of fires which hiked strongly in the current year will be carried out within a time-frame ranging from 3 months to 3 years, depending on the quality of the destroyed property.

He said in a statement to “Echorouk” that insurance companies will rely upon  the fact-finding reports of seasoned foreign re-insurance companies and international auditors to evaluate the assets of the shops and factories, buildings destroyed, knowing that fires cost the insurance companies in Algeria over 2,900 billion centimes (DA) in a matter of only three years.

Our interlocutor further pointed out that insurers usually compensate victims of fires according to the formula of “major risk” to re-insurance, and which  includes first-class factories, adding that most of the blazes that are recorded would see their victims benefit from proper compensation, despite the fact that the relevant process extends sometimes to 3 years, given the size of the damaged property, while stressing that this must require the overall assessment of experts and auditors of foreign re-insurance companies in order to be validated.

Mr Khelifati underscored to this effect that owners small enterprises affected by devastating fires have obtained financial compensation within 90 days, while for the larger factories, the process may take three years to assess their lost assets via a rigorous international evaluation.