A flat allowance paid as a percentage of the main indemnity to meet the incidental costs of a loss, with no receipts required.
Incidental loss cover pays a flat supplement, computed as a percentage of the main indemnity, meant to meet the costs a loss generates without any of them attaching to an invoice: travel, correspondence, phone calls, time spent on formalities, administrative trouble. Its distinctive feature is that no receipts are required, which is also its reason for existing: these costs are real, diffuse and individually trivial, and demanding proof would cost more in handling than the sums at stake. The flat allowance is therefore an admitted impossibility of measurement, and a measured departure from the indemnity principle, accepted because it is capped and proportional. Two limits often escape policyholders. The allowance is computed on the indemnity actually paid, so after depreciation and after the deductible, which makes it slim on small claims. And it does not stack with reimbursement of the same costs against receipts where the contract offers one. The problem solved is the cost of examining expenses too small to verify and too numerous to ignore.
Most French household policies set this allowance at 10% of the damage indemnity. On a water damage claim settled at 3,000 euros after depreciation and a 150 euro deductible, the allowance applies to the 3,000 euros paid rather than to the gross damage, which explains the regular gap between the policyholder's arithmetic and the handler's.
garantie pertes indirectes forfaitaire, frais annexes de sinistre