The act by which the policyholder tells the insurer a covered event has occurred, within a contractual period whose breach is no longer automatically penalized.
Notice of claim opens the file and starts every obligation of the insurer running: it fixes the date on which the insurer learned of the event, triggers its response deadlines and governs the preservation of evidence. French law sets a short period, which policies recite on their first page, because the value of physical inspection decays fast and an insurer told late can no longer examine the site, question witnesses or mount a useful recovery. But the sanction for lateness has been heavily softened: the insurer can no longer invoke forfeiture of cover unless it establishes that the delay caused it prejudice, which reverses the burden and makes the clause inoperative in most files. The notice need be neither complete nor quantified; it must simply describe the event, its circumstances and its known consequences. The problem solved is the timing asymmetry between a policyholder who knows at once and an insurer who will know only what it is told, and too late to check.
Article L. 113-2 of the French Insurance Code sets the period at five working days, cut to two working days for theft. Its final paragraph, added by the act of December 31, 1989, bars forfeiture for late notice without proof that the insurer suffered prejudice: that single sentence gutted a sanction that policies still print in bold.
ouverture de dossier sinistre, avis de sinistre