You are thinking of the liability claim against the responsible party. In the first instance, the owners (whoever they may be at this point in history, the president has already said "we will rebuild" so does the state own it?) will file a claim with the property insurer. There will be limits, of course, but the question is, how are the limits written? Are the aggregate, including all properties insured under the form, or are they per location? What about the fine arts? Are they subject to separate limits or part of the location or aggregate limits? There is always the possibility that the Government does not insure these buildings, but I'm guessing that at worst they have a high deductible or self insured retention.

 

According to the TV news this noon almost one billion dollars has already been pledged by various companies and individuals to rebuild it.

 

I'm sure the French Government will take every penny, and still make the insurance claim.

 

I'd venture to guess whatever coverage they had on the structure and contents isn't sufficient enough to cover the actual costs of rebuilding/restoring it.

I'm pleased to see so many people/companies reaching into their pockets to help, I would've thought that's a positive thing in this day and age.

 

Yeah, you can't trust those French.

 

10 attacks on Catholic churches in France in the prior week and the burning of Notre Dame was celebrated on social media. Very very sad...

 

An answer to the insurance question:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...cid=spartandhp

 

That may not be the whole story. It is not uncommon for government entities to self insure and then reinsure their program over certain retentions.

 

It isn’t a slam on France. It is just common practice. Some jurisdictions impose a collateral source rule offsetting contributions against the amount of the insurance claim. Others reject that notion and will not allow the insurer to reduce its liability based on money the insured receives from other sources.

 

Insurance law has some of the weirdest quirks you can imagine.
I had to take a risk management course while pursuing a fire protection masters. ( never finished)

case after case of oddball situations.