Insurance agency or brokerage: keeping the phones going on a storm day

Article L113-2 of the French Insurance Code requires the policyholder to notify the insurer of a loss as soon as they become aware of it and no later than the period set by the contract. This period cannot be less than five working days, two working days in the case of theft and twenty-four hours in the case of livestock deaths. The parties may extend it by mutual agreement.

The same article frames the penalty: where the contract provides for it, forfeiture of cover for late notification can only be invoked against the policyholder if the insurer proves that the delay caused it harm, and never when the delay is due to a fortuitous event or force majeure. These nuances matter to the worried policyholder who calls on the sixth day, but it is for the claims handler, not reception, to apply them to their file.

Policyholders often confuse the two. Article L122-7 provides that contracts covering fire damage or other damage to property located in France give entitlement to cover against the effects of wind caused by storms, hurricanes and cyclones. Only cyclonic events with winds that have reached or exceeded 145 km/h averaged over ten minutes or 215 km/h in gusts fall under the natural disaster scheme.

For natural disasters, Service-public (the French government’s official information site) states that the claim must be made no later than 30 days after the order is published in the Journal officiel (France’s official gazette), by registered letter, preferably with acknowledgement of receipt, with the contract number, a description of the loss and an itemised list of the damaged property accompanied by supporting documents such as invoices or photos. The excess is then €380 for residential property, and €1,520 for damage caused by ground movement following drought or soil rehydration.

On the day of the storm itself, no one yet knows whether an order will be issued: the agency should therefore remind callers of the deadline in their contract without prejudging which scheme applies.

A share of the calls concerns three questions: “am I within the deadline?”, “how do I make a claim?”, “what should I prepare?”. Publishing the answers early in the morning, on the website, on the agency’s social media and in the phone greeting message, can shorten the queue.

The message must be accurate and cautious: refer to the period set by the contract, state the claim channels accepted by the insurer, advise keeping photos and invoices, and never suggest that damage is covered before the file has been examined.

This is a point to settle before the first peak. If, under your procedures, a call or a message left with the agency does not constitute a claim notification, the policyholder must be told so explicitly, with the steps to follow. Conversely, if the agency records claims by phone, the message taken must contain everything the insurer requires.

In both cases, the rule is written in advance and repeated on every call, in the same way, whoever or whatever answers the phone.

The principles of a usable message do not change on a storm day; what changes is the volume. Each form uses the same fields: name, contract number if known, address of the damaged property, date and time the damage was noticed, nature of the damage as described by the policyholder, whether or not the home is habitable, whether a claim has already been made, phone number and callback times.

The order of callbacks is decided by the team, on reading the forms, according to its own criteria. Reception promises no timescale for the loss assessment, no amount and no cover: it collects information, explains the steps and says honestly when the policyholder will be called back.

The peak can last several days: some damage is only discovered on returning from a weekend or after the first rain. So plan an arrangement that can last, including evenings and Saturdays.

Alyas answers 24 hours a day based on the information the agency gives it, such as claim deadlines and channels, collects each caller’s contact details and request, says when it does not know and offers to pass the request on, transfers to a single number if the caller asks and places a transcript and a summary of each call in your Alyas dashboard. The trial is free for 10 days, with no credit card required.