Waiting on a Flood or Earthquake Payout in Spain? Make Sure Your Own Figure Is in the File

The adjuster has been and gone: photographs of the skirting, a prod at the plaster, a question about where the water came in. Then a payment lands, short of what the storm took.

That figure looks like the answer. Spanish claim law reads it as one side's number and expects a second in the file: yours. Our read is that a file holding only the payer's figure is the weakest place a householder can stand.

On Tuesday we covered getting the claim in after Sunday's storm: the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros — Spain's public insurer for floods, earthquakes and other extraordinary events already takes a surcharge on your premium receipt, and you have seven days to tell your insurer. Today is the step after: your side of the file, and what to do when the payment comes.

Sunday's storm put water into homes in El Palo, in Málaga, among more than 50 weather incidents in the district. A flooded hallway is a miserable thing, and the five-day clock starts while it is still wet.

Article 38 of Spain's insurance contract law gives you five days from reporting the loss to send the insurer, in writing, a list of what was in the home, what was saved, what was damaged, and your estimate of the cost. Proving the items existed is on you, though the policy counts in your favour where better proof cannot reasonably be found.

That list costs nothing to write. Without it, your side of the file is blank.

For floods and earthquakes the Consorcio values the loss itself and is not bound by any figure your ordinary insurer puts on it. Your dated list is the number that sits in the expediente — claim file beside theirs.

By 20 October the Consorcio had logged 70,150 claims for the August earthquakes around Granada, 28 Málaga-province municipalities among them, paid 14,393 of those (€52,099,124) and refused 2,570. One claim in five paid, counting files rather than households, and nothing there on how many of the rest are arguing over the number.

A perito — loss adjuster values what can be seen. Keep damaged items until the visit; if they have to go, photograph them first. Keep invoices for urgent repairs.

The valuation uses market prices, including the rise in repair costs the earthquake series caused. Then the policy limits apply: excluded items, limits on cosmetic damage, and infraseguro — underinsurance.

A payout lower than your list is not, on its own, evidence of a mean adjuster; it may be the policy doing what it says. There is no excess on a Consorcio home claim, and new aftershock damage goes onto the existing file.

The law gives the insurer 40 days from the claim to pay at least the minimum it may owe on what it knows. Take that money. It does not close the file.

Put it next to your list. If the gap is one you can evidence, say so in writing with the evidence attached: through the Consorcio's Consulta de expedientes vía web — online claim-file lookup, or to an ordinary insurer by written objection.

The same page shows where the file stands, with your NIF — tax ID number and the file number sent by SMS or email at registration (lost it: email [email protected], subject solicitud número de expediente — file number request). A status of Tasación realizada, en revisión previa a la resolución — valuation done, under review before the decision means the number is in and the decision is pending.

If the written objection does not settle it, article 38 lets you name your own perito, at your own cost; the Consorcio will not pay that fee. You tell the Consorcio's adjuster and its territorial office, and online it goes in under Nombramiento de perito por el asegurado — appointment of an expert by the insured.

Mind the clock. Once one side names its expert and asks the other to do the same, the other has eight days, counted from the request. Miss it and their expert's report binds you.

Experts who agree sign a joint record: cause, valuation, payment. Two who disagree get a third, by agreement or through a court or notary, reporting within 30 days of accepting unless the parties set another period.

Each side pays its own expert. The third's fees and the other appraisal costs are split in half, unless one side's valuation was so disproportionate it made the appraisal necessary; that side then carries those costs alone.

That formal report binds both sides unless challenged in court: 30 days for the insurer, 180 for you, counted from the day it is notified, never from the first offer or payment. The Consorcio's complaints service cannot rule on cause or valuation; the number gets argued through the experts.

Tenants: the landlord's building policy generally does not cover your belongings; with your own contents policy, the route above is yours.

If your claim has stalled at valuation (a short payment to contest, an eight-day request, an insurer and the Consorcio pointing at each other), that is where our Navigator service steps in. We work in €30-an-hour blocks, offer a free estimate, and will tell you first if we don't think we can help.

No estoy conforme con la valoración — I don't agree with the valuation. Written, in the online file, with your list attached; on the phone it is only an opinion.

Nombro a mi propio perito — I am appointing my own loss adjuster. For the paid step only, once the fee is weighed against the gap.

The Consorcio's adjuster is a professional, and the figure may well be fair. The law still leaves you a chair at the table, and the first steps of sitting in it cost nothing. Leave it empty and the file reads as if only one side turned up.

Confirmed October 2026

Nearly there — A. and the WaypointSur team, with our own figure pencilled in the margin.