Damage from 2021

Deadline over: 750 hail damages not repaired

The low-pressure system "Volker" left a trail of devastation in June 2021 and also covered many roofs.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Daniel Scharinger, Markus Wenzel)

In the late summer of 2024, the outstanding cases could have been closed, but in the end the claimants were given one last deadline - until the end of the year. Now it's clear: 750 of the 17,600 claims that Upper Austrian insurance customers alone had from the severe storms in early summer 2021 remain open.

First the roofers were in short supply, which is why the repair work was delayed, then some apparently considered using the damage to rebuild right away - "the reasons why it is taking so long are not entirely clear to us," said Othmar Nagl, the head of Oberösterreichische Versicherung in mid-December 2024, who at the time spoke of 1100 claims outstanding since the early summer of 2021 with a claim amount of 9.4 million euros.

Deadline extended until the end of 2024 as an accommodation
The CEO also revealed, together with CEO Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner, that although the limitation period begins at the time the claim is assessed and expires after three years, all customers who still have outstanding claims were once again given the opportunity to submit the associated repair orders until the end of 2024 as a gesture of goodwill.

Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner and Othmar Nagl from Oberösterreichische Versicherung.

(Bild: Oberösterreichische Versicherung)

"Our claims department was therefore very busy in the last few weeks of the year because there were actually still a lot of orders for repair companies," reported Kühtreiber-Leitner. Nevertheless, not all customers submitted fixed repair orders, which would have been sufficient for the insurer in the first step, or invoices on time. This means that as of January 6, around 750 claims were still open and will now be closed. In some cases, the extent is probably not that serious: In many cases, apparently only a visual impairment remained from the storms, the function of roofs and co. was not restricted.

In total, storm "Volker", which swept across parts of the country with hurricane-force gusts of wind combined with hail, caused damage amounting to 160 million euros for customers of Oberösterreichische Versicherung.