IT’S still early days since the passage of Hurricane Beryl but the latest information from large insurance firms indicates that claims were steadily trending up on Friday as clients sought payouts for wind- and flood-induced property damage.

The phone lines of insurers GK Insurance, British Caribbean Insurance Company (BCIC), and IronRock were relatively busy on Thursday and Friday, with at least one reporting that it was already up to 20 claims associated with the Category 4 hurricane that killed at least three people, disrupted power lines, and brought down trees.

The west end of the island experienced the worst impact.

“Just for today, we had 20 claims coming in,” K Michelle Reid, claims and legal manager at GK Insurance, told the Jamaica Observer.

Meanwhile, over at IronRock, Managing Director Evan Thwaites said that while no claims were filed up to Thursday evening, the company was aware of four incidents associated with the hurricane.

“We are aware of one home that we insure in Treasure Beach that lost its roof. We have a team of adjusters going to St Elizabeth tomorrow [Friday], and they will spend the weekend assessing the damage. In other words, we are not waiting for people to make a claim; we are sending our people out to make sure that we understand the level of damage, how we can assist, and so forth,” he told Sunday Finance.

As it relates to motor vehicle claims, Thwaites said that a few clients had also called in about fallen tree branches causing damage to windshields.

“This is quite common. Vehicles parked near an ackee tree or mango tree often get damaged when a branch falls and breaks the windshield or harms the car. We are aware of three potential motor claims at this point but I am fairly confident that there will be a few more,” he added. However, Thwaites does not expect a flood of claims at this time.

The insurance firms expect to have a better reading on just how much they will have to pay out in claims by Friday, when some level of normality returns to businesses and proper inspection of properties is done.

Just days ahead of the passage of Hurricane Beryl, residents scurried to open or renew insurance policies in anticipation of “catastrophic” weather conditions.

Property and motor insurance were the most in-demand products, fuelled by anxiety heightened around Beryl which was expected to unload hurricane-force winds, life-threatening storm surges and damaging waves in Jamaica, after making landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou island.

On Monday, Hurricane Beryl ravaged the southern Caribbean islands, flattening hundreds of buildings and causing the deaths of at least seven people. However in Jamaica, while many homes and businesses were disrupted by the hurricane, there has been no major fallout.

Still, news of a hurricane usually forces many to prepare for any eventualities.

“Once there is a storm there is usually an uptick in insurance interest. Certainly, there were a few instances of people whose policies had expired, and they were getting in touch with us to reinstate them — but I think what happened with Hurricane Beryl is that the notice was such that there was only one working day for people to get the coverage they needed.

“Many companies stopped writing new business when the country goes on hurricane watch, when the storm is less than 48 hours away,” Peter Levy, managing director at British Caribbean Insurance Company (BCIC), told Sunday Finance.

For BCIC, much of its property insurance business comes from mortgage lenders, but it is looking to boost business from individual property owners. Natural disasters like Hurricane Beryl are one way to jump-start that growth, but Levy is also banking on increased advertising.

“There are some homeowners who have paid off their mortgages and have done individual insurance; we want to reach more of those customers. But the majority of our property insurance business comes from the building societies and the lending agencies,” Levy told
Sunday Finance.

That’s a market IronRock is also looking to deepen its footing in, owing to more steady rates in the insurance industry for 2024 following sharp increases in insurance premiums in 2023 for cars and homes. Higher interest rates are the primary factors driving the increase in premiums, as investors found insurance less attractive when compared to prior years.

As such, motor insurance was 25 per cent more expensive on average in 2023 than the previous year, and the average premium paid for a combined buildings and contents policy rose by 19 per cent year on year.

“This year has been more modest. The reinsurance market is recovering a bit; they had a relatively low level of catastrophes worldwide last year so they were able to build up more capital. Prices haven’t come back down but they have either been flat or slightly up,” Levy said.

Insurance premiums on property typically run between one per cent and 25 per cent of the property or motor vehicle value.