From insurance

Upper Austria Ver

1100 hail claims from June 2021 are still open at Oberösterreichische Versicherung.

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

At first the roofers were working at full capacity and so no tradesmen could be found, but now many homeowners are running out of time to repair their roofs. Because 1100 hail damage claims from June 2021 are still outstanding, Oberösterreichische Versicherung has set customers a final deadline. The claims expire at the end of the year.

"There is a lot going on in our claims department at the moment," Othmar Nagl, CEO of Oberösterreichische Versicherung, said at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

Together with CEO Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner, he presented the figures for the Linz-based insurer, which once again posted a good balance sheet this year. At 38.1 million euros profit before taxes, 2024 was just as good as the previous year.

According to Nagl, 2024 was a "fire year": "We had numerous fires."

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel/FF Burghausen)

2024 was a "fire year"
And this despite the fact that this year was a real "fire year", as Nagl emphasized. The fire in a sawmill caused the biggest fire damage in the company's history, and there were seven other major fires in the agricultural sector. "Whereas we used to talk about a major loss of around 300,000 euros, today there is no such thing as a loss of less than one million euros," says Nagl. Overall, losses in the fire sector rose to 42.8 million euros. However, battery fires in scooters are not included in this figure; they are more a case for household insurance and are not a major factor here either, it is said.

Othmar Nagl (left) and Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner.

(Bild: OÖV/Richard Haidinger)

The total hail damage amounted to 160 million euros
The Upper Austrian insurance company is still struggling to deal with the damage from June 2021. Three and a half years ago, storm "Volker" left a trail of devastation in its wake, with hail damage amounting to 160 million euros for Upper Austrian customers alone.

Time until the end of the year to submit invoice or order agreement
"There are still around 1,100 outstanding claims amounting to 9.4 million euros," says Nagl. These claims, which have been determined by experts and approved by the insurer, are actually already time-barred. As a gesture of goodwill, the period of three years was extended until the end of the year. But now there is no more leniency: anyone who does not submit at least the fixed order or even the invoice by the end of the year will lose the insurance benefit.

"Some reasons are not clear to us"
Why have some people not yet completed the claim? "We assume that some wanted to use the opportunity to rebuild," says Nagl, "but there are also some reasons that are not clear to us."