The Natural Disaster Insurance Pool (PAID) signed, between July 15, 2010, and Friday, 723,735 compulsory home insurance policies, the equivalent of 8.63 pc of the homes in Romania, considerably below estimates, and paid RON 87,375.64-worth of damages, for 16 damage claim applications, the director general of the institution, Marius Bulugea, stated, yesterday, quoted by Mediafax. A year ago, PAID representatives estimated that 15 to 20 pc of the 8.39 million homes in Romania would be insured by a compulsory policy. PAID figures indicate that the pace of compulsory policies’ subscriptions surpassed, in the week before July 15, a peak of over 20,000 contracts per day.
In the ranking per regions, the capital claimed the first position based on the number of compulsory policies signed – 21 pc out of the total, alongside Wallachia – 21 pc, followed by Moldavia – 15 pc and Transylvania – 13 pc. The counties leading in the policies’ ranking include Constanta – 20.38 pc out of a total of over 264,000 homes, Bucharest – 18.7 pc out of nearly 793,000 homes, Tulcea – 14.7 pc out of 94,400 homes; Galati – 13 pc out of 221,507 homes, Braila – 12.66 pc out of nearly 136,400 homes, Ilfov – 12.58 pc out of 122,656 homes and Timis – 11.9 pc out of 268,295 homes. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the counties Maramures, Salaj, Alba, Harghita, Bistrita-Nasaud and Gorj, with insurance policies rates below 5 pc of the total homes in the respective counties.
Home-owners are under the obligation to take an insurance policy, with bonuses varying, function of the type of home (A or B), between EUR 10 and 20. The insured value of a home ranges between EUR 10,000 and 20,000. Under the provisions of the law, home-owners who fail to insure their homes, either by a compulsory policy, issued by PAID, or an optional one, signed with an authorised insurer, will receive fines of up to RON 500.
