The vehicle was damaged when the underground parking lot of a building was flooded during the rains. Although the owners of the building tried to stop the inflow of water by building a safety wall of sandbags, the rains were too strong, so these efforts were not successful.
The vehicle was completely under water for three days, so not only all electronics and control units, but also the interior, engine and other important parts were permanently damaged. In such cases, the manufacturer’s warranty does not apply. As part of an independent expertise, it has been established that it is impossible to ensure high-quality repair – the car has to be literally rebuilt. Therefore, a decision was made to write it off, compensating the owner for the full value of the vehicle.
“So far, BALTA has received 78 claims related to damage to cars caused by storm-induced rains. Most of the vehicles are repairable, but several will be written off. We have already identified five such cars, including a virtually new Range Rover worth around €83,000. It’s one of the largest compensations we’ve calculated to date that we’ll pay a customer for damage caused by a recent storm. It is expected that the total amount of compensation will exceed 3.5 million euros,” reveals Armands Lagons, head of BALTA’s Private Property and Special Products Management Department.
The cyclone, which with heavy rains and storms approached Latvia from the south on the evening of July 28 and continued to rage for about 24 hours, caused various damages: the first floors and basements of buildings were flooded, trees and branches broken by the wind damaged buildings and cars, in several cases the roof structures did not survive the strong wind. A significant number of relatively minor damages have been recorded, for example, due to heavy rainfall, rainwater has entered the property through the exterior walls of buildings. However, there is no lack of extensive damage: many properties have been in water for several days due to floods, floors and furniture have been damaged, the foundations of buildings may have been damaged; both in floods and due to breaking trees and tree branches, cars have been seriously damaged; several properties have damaged roofs.
2024-08-13 15:42:39