House Insurance and the Restoration of damaged houses
Ensuring your house has become mandatory in Romania as of July 15th.
22 Iulie 2010, 10:38
According to official data, there are over 8 million privately owned properties in Romania, of which 4.5 million in the urban area and 3.8 million in the countryside, but only 24% of them are insured.
The obligatory house insurance covers against flooding, landslides and earthquakes. The cost of this type of insurance is 10 euros a year in case of buildings made of unburnt brick or any other type of material that has not been subject to thermal treatment, and 20 euros a year in the case of buildings made of re-enforced concrete or wood.
In the event of a disaster, the insured persons will receive 10,000 and 20,000 euros respectively, while people who do not insure their homes within 6 months face a fine of up to 120 euros. There is one exception, however.
People who own homes in buildings with high seismic risk are under no obligation to insure them.
The authorities say that even the homes located in flood risk areas have to be insured. One example is the eastern part of Romania, which has been confronted with the biggest floods in recent years.
23 people have died, thousands have been evacuated from their homes and many houses have been destroyed. Large areas under crops have been covered by water.
The flooding caused extensive damage to railways, national and local roads and streets have been damaged, and so have many dams, communications networks and natural gas supply networks.
In Suceava county alone, in the north-east, the value of the damage caused by the floods at the end of June amounts to 85 million euros, while this figure stands at 25 million euros in Botosani county, also in the north-east.
The government in Bucharest has approved a special programme under which it undertakes to provide the building materials for the reconstruction or restoration of the homes destroyed by flooding by their owners or specialised companies.
The total sum allocated under this programme for a home which has to be rebuilt from the ground up amounts to some 9,000 euros.
Experts say floodwaters may retreat within a month, which is when the reconstruction of houses is expected to start.
According to local officials, people can rebuild their homes on their former locations provided they receive a building approval.
(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).
