OREANDA-NEWS. October 23, 2009. In Yekaterinburg, ROSNO is launching a pilot project involving joint work of insurers and the city’s housing management companies. The project aims to draw attention of the general public to the need to protect personal property and cover civil liability, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

The project is of social importance: Yekaterinburg residents will be able to insure with ROSNO their property and liability on favourable terms under a special insurance program. The program will protect people from the typical housing risks: flood, fire, gas leak, breach of plumbing systems, short circuit in electric mains. Presently, in all such cases, liability for the occurrence is borne by the party that has caused an accident, i.e. an apartment owner or a housing management company.

The consequences of various emergencies have a negative effect on the state of housing fund, financial condition of apartment owners and housing management companies, while the search for wrongdoers and enforcement of cash compensations may last for years. Meanwhile, the insurance coverage under the new program will enable shifting financial liability for restoration of damaged property to the insurance company. The project work is carried out in accordance with the following procedure: the insurer and the housing management company conclude an agreement, whereby the latter supplements the communal service invoice with an insurance payment item, among such items as heating and water supply. The insurance premium will depend on the value of property kept in the respective apartment, accounting for 1 to 3 percent of monthly communal charges. Whether to pay for insurance coverage or not, everybody will decide on his or her own. Also, the apartment owner is entitled to choose the duration of insurance coverage of his or her apartment — for example, only for the duration of vacations or business trips. An insurance compensation will be received within 10 days after submission by the aggrieved party of the full set of documents to the insurance company.

Initially, the program for insurance coverage of residential premises in the municipal housing fund buildings was launched in 1995 in Moscow, under the auspices of the City Government. Today, one of two Moscow apartments is covered under this program. In case of an insured accident, insurers and municipal administration pay compensations in the ratio of 70:30. At present, ROSNO is successfully implementing the program already in fourteen Russian cities; throughout Russia, the company has insured over 800,000 families. In 2008, the insurance compensations paid by ROSNO under this program exceeded 33.5 mln. roubles.