Insurance Coverage for Damages caused by Filomena

If a storm like Filomena has damaged your car, your home, or hurt you or someone in your family, the first question is usually the same: who pays for this? Here is what actually gets covered, and by whom.

Most of the damage from a storm like this to vehicles, homes, or people is covered under your normal auto, health, or home insurance policy. On top of that, since July 1, 2016, every vehicle with Spanish auto liability insurance is also backed by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS), a public fund that steps in for material damage caused by extraordinary risks such as earthquakes or floods.

Snow and ice, however, are not classed as an extraordinary risk under CCS rules. That means the CCS will not compensate personal injury, material damage, or lost income or profits caused by snowfall. The CCS itself has said that snow-related claims are better handled through your private insurer, since those are usually covered under standard policies.

One point in your favor: unlike wind or rain damage claims, snow damage claims do not require you to prove that certain wind speeds or rainfall levels were reached.

What this means for your car

If your car only has third-party insurance, it will not cover something like a fallen branch damaging it. Full-risk (comprehensive) cover will generally handle this. Either way, you have 7 days to report the claim to your insurer.

What this means if you were hurt

Falls, knocks, and slips during bad weather are common, and several cases like this have already come up. These would normally be handled by private insurance, and anyone with life insurance could also make a claim there. In some situations you could try to claim against the City Council, but you would need to prove the road or area was in poor condition and that the council was negligent, for example by not activating its extraordinary weather plans. In our view, this kind of claim against the council is unlikely to succeed.

If the affected area is officially declared a catastrophic zone (as was being discussed for Madrid given the scale of Filomena's impact), the picture changes. Under CCS rules, damage classified by the Government as a catastrophe is not compensated by the Consortium. Instead, the Government itself would cover those damages directly, and nothing would be claimed from the CCS.