As the All-Russian Union of Insurers (ARIA) warns, according to most of the rules of insurers on hull insurance policies, ignition of liquids and gases inside a car due to heat will not be recognized as insured events. Accordingly, companies may refuse payments to car owners for possible heat damage. As an argument for refusal, insurers will call the “gross negligence” of the car owner.
Less than two weeks have passed since the announcement of the ARIA about the refusal of insurers to pay under hull insurance contracts for a water hammer during heavy rains (see Kommersant on June 30), when a new explanation of the union for motorists on the heat has arrived. As follows from the BCC message released today, “Casco does not cover the risks of a fire inside the car due to gas cylinders, sprays, alcohol-containing liquids in cans, etc., left in it during the heat.” The Union advises that the so-called risk of “fire or vehicle fire for any reason is a separate risk at an additional cost”.
At high temperatures, such liquids and gases can ignite, and at an outside temperature of about 30 degrees Celsius, the temperature of the air inside a car left in a parking lot can be significantly higher. Leaving flammable liquids and gases inside the passenger compartment can be interpreted as gross negligence, and insurance payment will be refused.
BCC recommends that when leaving a car in a parking lot, flammable liquids and gases should be removed from it and not stored in the car.
It is noteworthy that a fire extinguisher can also cause damage. As VSS Vice President Sergei Efremov explained to Kommersant, if direct sunlight hits a car dealership, the temperature can reach more than 50 degrees, which can lead to an increase in pressure inside the fire extinguisher and its explosion. “It is important not to store the fire extinguisher directly in the passenger compartment and to keep it away from direct sunlight,” he says.
The companies themselves told Kommersant that such cases are rare. As the deputy head of RESO-Garantia, Igor Ivanov, says, “the recommendations of the ARIA are reasonable, but not every company will consider it a gross negligence.” According to him, in his company, comprehensive insurance covers the risk of fire for any reason. The insurer “Soglasie” told Kommersant that the company’s rules describe the damage caused by a “fire” event as “the external impact of an open source of fire.” According to Maksim Maksimkin, Head of the Retail Business Loss Settlement Department of Ingosstrakh, this year the insurer has not received any complaints about heat damage to motorists. He recalls last year’s experience when a customer parked a car in front of a tinted, curved shop window that focused the sun’s rays and the interior melted. “In this case, we paid,” he says to Kommersant, “the external thermal effect on the car is recognized by us as an insured event for hull insurance.”
The insurer explains that the company will not cover the loss in cases where the car ignites due to a technical malfunction – when the client has installed abnormal alarm systems or music systems:
“In the event of an explosion, for example, of a mobile phone near a heated windshield, we will pay. As for the ignition of liquids and gases from the heat inside the car, in contrast to the water hammer, which is unambiguously interpreted by the insurers in the rules as an exception to the coverage, Maxim Maksimkin refers to the company’s rules, according to which “uncontrolled combustion or explosion caused by interaction an external object with heated parts of the vehicle or as a result of placing an object in the passenger compartment or trunk of the vehicle, from the heating of which, as a result of contact with the internal objects of the vehicle or other objects in the vehicle, a fire has occurred. ” What the ARIA warns about.
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