Basically this means going back to how things used to be before, when a voluntary policy could replace a mandatory insurance policy. The mandatory policies cost EUR10 or EUR20 a year and cover three risks for an amount up to EUR10,000 and EUR20,000 respectively, depending on the home’s construction material.
“The Court suspends the enforcement of CSA Order no. 15/2012 and of Norms on the form and clauses included in the mandatory home insurance contract only with respect to the effects of article no. 7 of the Norms,” reads the court decision.
Article 7 forbids insurance companies from issuing policies that cover the three risks for insured amounts up to EUR10,000 and EUR20,000 respectively. The CSA order had come into force on September 1 and forbid insurance companies even to use the name PAD (of the mandatory policy) when selling voluntary insurance.
Some insurance companies, Astra included, in the past launched voluntary policies that used the name PAD and had similar prices to mandatory insurance, but offered additional coverage, such as for damage caused by fires, explosions and even home theft.
Astra, which asked in court that the enforcement of the CSA Order be suspended, is one of the shareholders of PAID, the company that issues the mandatory policies and implicitly one of the companies authorized to sell PAD policies. Astra had not answered by deadline a ZF request over the reasons why it decided to challenge in court the decision of the regulatory authority.
The insurance supervisory commission has five days to appeal the decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeals. But the institution did not say, at ZF’s request, whether it had made a decision to this effect, saying only it would issue a press release on the subject on Thursday.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)