HUNGARY: 2019 summer storms caused EUR 12 million in households property damage

18 September 2019 —
In terms of summer storms losses, 2019 was an average year for Hungarian insurers. As the latest Association of Hungarian Insurance Companies (MABISZ) analysis shows, local insurers paid around HUF 4.1 billion (~ EUR 12 million) in households claims related to weather events, between May 1st - August 31st.

This summer, Hungarian insurers received nearly 100,000 notifications related to household storm damage, three times more than for the same period of 2018 (excluding property claims from agriculture, businesses, industrial facilities and public institutions).

For the past decade, the summer of 2010 continues to remain the most costly year for insurers, regarding storm damages. For the period of May-August 2010, Hungarian insurers paid a total amount of HUF 30 billion (~ EUR 90 million) for homeowners.

In the past few years, a new trend has risen in storm claims in Hungary. Electronic equipment failure, caused by lightning outages and high-voltage fluctuations, has increased in number, the claims related to these events amounting close to HUF 2 billion (~ EUR 6 million) for the first eight months of 2019. These events can be very costly for insurers; an example mentioned by MABISZ is coming from Baranya County, where a single large claim was HUF 2.4 million (~ EUR 7.2 thousand) for electronics damaged by lightning affecting the power grid.

MABISZ mentioned that one in four households in Hungary is uninsured. Hungarian market portfolio continues to be rich in property insurance, which at the end of June 2019 represented 32% of total non-life premiums, and 18% from the total market gross written premiums.

* 2019 presented figures were converted at the following exchange rate: 1 HUF = 0.0030 EUR

2094 views