2023-12-28 17:17:30
The subject had been on the table for months and it became urgent to decide in the face of the resurgence of increasingly costly climate disasters. It’s done. As our colleagues from Les Échos revealed this Thursdaythe government has opted for a very clear increase in the additional premium applied to contract damage guarantees and which feeds into the “Cat Nat” public-private compensation scheme.
In the event of flooding, marine submersion, earthquakes or even for the consequences of shrinkage phenomena, swelling of clay with cracked houses in particular, insurers and the Central Reinsurance Fund share the compensation equally. But this scheme has been in deficit since 2015 for a total of 1.9 billion euros.
Also, less sharp, increase in automobile insurance
To bail it out and ensure its future, Bercy has therefore decided to increase the “Cat Nat” surcharge rate on home and professional property insurance contracts from 12 to 20% on January 1, 2025, according to a decree dated December 22 published this Thursday in the Official Journal.
The increase is less clear for automobile insurance since it only goes from 6 to 9%. The government is therefore following the demands of insurers since the Central Reinsurance Fund advocated a move to 19% when France Assureurs demanded 18%.
This surcharge has not increased for 25 years
“The Cat Nat regime is facing a structural increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters – droughts, floods, earthquakes, cyclonic events, landslides –,” Bercy explains in a press release. However, the contributions collected for this plan have not been reassessed for almost 25 years. This growing imbalance threatens the sustainability of coverage of the Cat Nat scheme, in a context of need to adapt to climate change.”
Set at 6% in 1982 when the system was created, the “Cat Nat” tax, which is used to fund the fund, has in fact been reassessed twice in the past to 9% in 1984 then 12% in 1999. With a rate at 20% in 2025, the average annual contribution will increase from 25 euros to 41 euros, according to France Assureurs, an increase of 16 euros. While the average annual home insurance contribution was 293 euros in 2022, this additional cost represents an increase of 5.4%.
And this is not the only increase to be expected. A second, much weaker, will also affect home, professional property and automobile insurance contracts. From July 1, 2024, the annual contribution to the Guarantee Fund for victims of acts of terrorism and other offenses (FGTI) will increase by 60 euro cents to reach 6.50 euros.
This “attack tax”, as it appears on your calls for contributions, allows the FGTI to compensate victims of acts of common law (homicides, rapes and sexual assaults, etc.), of terrorism or even of traffic accidents when the person responsible is not insured, before the organization turns against the perpetrator. This increase in the contribution should make it possible to increase the compensation capacity of the guarantee fund for certain among the most vulnerable victims, such as victims of intra-family violence and minors.
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