As part of the assessment of claims covered by an insurance policy, experts are regularly called in, usually commissioned by the insurance companies themselves. These experts report to their principals on the financial assessment of the claim and a technical analysis of the cause and origin of the loss, so that, on the basis of this technical analysis and the expert report drawn up, a proposal for compensation can be made to the policyholder. However, many victims of the catastrophic floods of July 2021 have had to deal with the unfortunate situation where so-called experts have presented themselves as such to the victims in order to assess the damage suffered and to defend the assessment of the loss to the insurer concerned, even though they were neither mandated by the insurer nor in possession of the technical capacity to do so.
This article is available in Dutch and French.