Condominiums claim changes in the law six months after storms

Portugal was reached by a series of depressions between the end of january and early march, of which Kristin was the most serious.

At least 19 people died following the passing of the Kristin depressions on 28 January, preceded by the Leonardo and Marta, half of which as a result of the recovery work, and several hundred were injured, displaced and displaced.

The storms, which for about three weeks mainly affected the regions Centro, Lisboa and Vale do Tejo and Alentejo, caused the total or partial destruction of thousands of homes, companies and equipment, the fall of trees and structures, the cutting of energy, water and communications, floods and floods, with losses of more than EUR 5 billion.

Following these storms, numerous cases have been initiated with the insurers, whose final accounts are not yet closed.

Now, according to the law, the buildings have as many insurance as the fractions they have, which, in the opinion of the Portuguese Association of Management Companies and Administration of Condominiums (APEGAC), makes no sense.

“ This was resolved with the obligation of insurance to be unique for the building ", Lusa Vítor Amaral, president of APEGAC, told Lusa Vítor Amaral.

“ This was a great difficulty, because, let us imagine a building with 100 fractions, the insurance, being individual, in a situation like this, that affected the common parts and the building as a whole, it is necessary to have 100 participations ", pointed out.

In addition, the law, as it is, opens the door to different decisions: “one insurer understands that it is covered, the other understands that no, one insurance company has franchises, the other has no franchises”.

APEGAC argues that it is necessary to amend the law to prevent future situations, but it has not found any reception, either with the Secretary of State for Housing, the Portuguese Insurance Association, or the parliamentary groups.

The government received some 35,900 applications for housing reconstruction support and the mission structure designated for recovery estimated between 35 thousand and 40 thousand companies with damage to the most affected areas.

“There are still unresolved situations,” says APEGAC’s president, especially in the Center, giving the example of a company that made 63 shares, of which 51 are resolved, nine are still undecided and three have not even had expertise.

Still, he acknowledges, “it cannot be said to be a negative balance” because “the country is fortunately not used to this type of situation”. In other words, “it was not expected that there would be an immediate response from the insurers to solve all the problems, which were many”,

For Vítor Amaral, another question is whether the situations were solved in the best way and then assumes that “sometimes not”.

This “because the insurers (...) fell below the damage values and in other situations even with the presentation of solutions that are not ideal, which are not indicated and that even (...) should not apply”, he noted.

And he left an example: for a building with a large tile type that is discontinued, the insurance company proposed that they take advantage of the tile that was still in condition, using different tile only on the damaged part.

Vítor Amaral also listed another consequence of the depressions: the fact that the insurers had to allocate means and experts to respond to the claims had an impact even on the minor accident, which may currently have to wait months for an expert.

“ At this time, there will be, perhaps, (...) being sure that I will not fall into the exaggeration, thousands of sinister processes that await expertise ", estimated.

The passage of the storm Kristin through Portugal caused widespread damage to roofs, facades, garages and common areas of numerous residential buildings, exposing structural weaknesses in condominium protection, said the Portuguese Association of Management and Administration of Condominiums.

On Tuesday, the National Communications Authority (Anacom) told Lusa that about 1,600 customers, in most of the Leiria region, did not yet have fixed communications services.

Meanwhile, it was announced on Thursday that Portugal will receive an advance of €65.37 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EU) to finance recovery after the storms of the beginning of the year.