Chapter V: Insurance against natural disasters.

Standard clauses applicable to insurance contracts referred to in article L. 125-1 (second paragraph) of the Insurance Code

a) Purpose of the cover:
The purpose of this insurance is to guarantee the insured the payment of an indemnity corresponding to the loss of gross profit and the additional operating costs resulting, during the indemnity period provided for by the contract, from the interruption or reduction in the activity of its business, the determining cause of which is the abnormal intensity of a natural agent affecting the property of this business, when the usual measures to be taken to prevent this damage could not prevent it from occurring or could not be taken.
b) Implementation of cover:
Cover can only be implemented after publication in the Journal officiel de la République française of an interministerial order declaring a state of natural disaster.
c) Extent of cover:
Cover includes, without the possibility of any special deduction from the amount of the elements of the risk used to determine the premium or contribution, the financial consequences of the interruption or reduction in the company's activity, within the limits and under the conditions set by the contract for the main risk, as they existed at the time of the first occurrence of the risk.
d) Excess:
The insured shall retain responsibility for a portion of the compensation due after the loss corresponding to an interruption or reduction in the business's activity for three working days, with a minimum of 1,140 euros.
However, any excess provided for in the policy will be applied if it is higher than these amounts.
The insured may not take out insurance for the portion of the risk represented by the excess.
In a commune that does not have a plan for the prevention of foreseeable natural risks for the risk that is the subject of a decree declaring a state of natural disaster, the excess is adjusted according to the number of declarations of a state of natural disaster that have been made for the same risk over the five years preceding the date of the new declaration, in accordance with the following procedures:
first and second declaration: application of the excess;
-third declaration: doubling of the applicable excess;
-fourth declaration: tripling of the applicable excess;
-fifth and subsequent declarations: quadrupling of the applicable excess.

The provisions of the previous paragraph cease to apply from the time a plan for the prevention of foreseeable natural risks is prescribed for the risk which is the subject of the declaration of a state of natural disaster in the municipality concerned. They resume their effects in the absence of approval of the aforementioned plan within four years of the date of the decree prescribing the natural risk prevention plan.
e) Obligation of the insured:
The insured must declare to the insurer or its local representative any loss likely to trigger cover as soon as it is known and at the latest within thirty days of publication of the interministerial decree declaring a state of natural disaster.
When several insurance policies taken out by the insured may enable the same cover to be invoked, the insured must, in the event of a claim and within the period mentioned in the previous paragraph, declare the existence of these insurance policies to the insurers concerned. Within the same time limit, he must declare the claim to the insurer of his choice.
f) Obligation of the insurer:
The insurer must pay the compensation due under the guarantee within three months of the date of submission by the insured of the estimate of the losses suffered or the date of publication of the interministerial order declaring the state of natural disaster when this is later. Failing this, and except in the case of fortuitous events or force majeure, the compensation due by the insurer shall bear interest at the legal rate from the expiry of this period.