Fixed allowance for incidental losses
A flat allowance paid as a percentage of the main indemnity to meet the incidental costs of a loss, with no receipts required.
Textbook case: a French household policy sets the incidental loss allowance at 10% of the damage indemnity, and a water damage claim settles at 3,000 euros after depreciation and a 150 euro deductible. The allowance runs on the 3,000 euros paid, never on the gross damage, and the policyholder who redoes the sum from the plumber's invoice always lands higher than the handler. The cover pays, without receipts, what a loss costs off the invoice: travel, letters, calls, hours lost on paperwork. Proving each of those items would cost more to handle than they are worth. So the indemnity principle gives way, under a cap and in proportion to the indemnity, which is what makes the exception tolerable. The flip side is arithmetic: after depreciation and deductible, the allowance on a small claim comes to a few dozen euros. Most wordings also bar stacking it with reimbursement of the same costs against receipts, where the policy offers that.
Textbook case: a French household policy sets this allowance at 10% of the damage indemnity. A water damage claim settled at 3,000 euros after depreciation and a 150 euro deductible yields 300 euros of incidental losses, computed on the 3,000 euros paid rather than on the gross damage, hence the regular gap between the policyholder's arithmetic and the handler's. On the same policy, a leak settled at 450 euros after the same 150 euro deductible yields only 45 euros, for the same calls and the same letters.
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