- A wildfire is not a "natural disaster" as far as your insurance is concerned — it's just a fire. Even though it's caused by extreme weather and makes the news as a natural catastrophe, French law treats fire damage as an ordinary fire insurance claim, not a CatNat ("catastrophe naturelle") claim
- Don't wait for a "catastrophe naturelle" declaration before claiming. If your home is damaged or destroyed by wildfire, contact your insurer straight away under your normal fire cover (garantie incendie) — a CatNat declaration, if one ever comes for your area, won't apply to the fire damage and could take far longer than your actual claim deadline
- Your real deadline is normally much shorter than people assume — though it's been extended for the current fires. CatNat's 30-day window doesn't apply here; your ordinary policy's fire-claim deadline does, and that's usually just 5 business days. For the 2026 fires in Gironde, Landes, and Var specifically, insurers have extended this to at least 31 August 2026 — but don't rely on that if you're outside those departments
- You could lose up to €5,000 of your payout if your land wasn't legally cleared. Since October 2023, insurers can apply a penalty of up to €5,000 on a forest-fire claim if you hadn't met your legal obligation to clear vegetation near your property (débroussaillement) — regardless of how the fire started
Given the current wildfires burning across France in 2026, this is a good time to address how insurance treats damage or loss by fire. Sadly, more than 240 properties in the Bordeaux area have been lost to the wildfires at the time of writing. Called a natural disaster in the news, it doesn't reflect the reality of your insurance policy.
Some owners assume that because the fires are being reported as a natural catastrophe, their claim will be handled under France's "catastrophe naturelle" (CatNat) disaster scheme. It won't be. Fire is fire, and it's covered on its own terms — with its own, much tighter deadline.
The point to act on: don't wait for a disaster declaration
If your home has been damaged or destroyed by wildfire, contact your insurer immediately under your ordinary fire cover (garantie incendie) — don't wait to see whether the government declares your commune a "catastrophe naturelle" zone first.
Here's why that matters. CatNat gives you 30 days to claim, but only after an official arrêté is published in the Journal Officiel — and that process can take weeks to even begin, if it happens at all for your situation. Your fire claim doesn't get that 30-day cushion, because it isn't a CatNat claim. Your ordinary home insurance policy sets its own deadline for a fire claim, and it's normally far shorter — 5 business days is the standard contractual figure. Some owners, hearing "catastrophe naturelle" on the news, wait for an official disaster declaration before contacting their insurer at all, and risk missing their real, much tighter fire-claim deadline while they wait for something that may never come, or that wouldn't even cover their fire damage if it did.
Update for the current 2026 fires: insurers have extended this deadline to at least 31 August 2026 for policyholders in Gironde, Landes, and Var, and are also covering rehousing costs — see our news update on the exceptional measures for the full details.
Why fire doesn't count as "catastrophe naturelle" — the actual reason
It isn't a technicality or a loophole — it's how the two systems are built to work. France's CatNat scheme exists to cover damage that ordinary insurance can't cover, because the risk is considered uninsurable by normal means. Under Article L125-1 of the Code des assurances, CatNat compensates "direct material damage that is uninsurable," where the cause is the "abnormal intensity of a natural agent" — flooding, drought-driven subsidence, earthquake.
Fire doesn't meet that test, because fire is already insurable — in fact it's compulsorily covered. Under Article L122-1, every French home insurer must cover damage from fire, including the effects of smoke and even firefighting operations. Because a standard mechanism already exists to insure against fire, it can never fall under the "uninsurable" test that defines CatNat. This is confirmed directly by Géorisques, the official government risk-information service: "the compensation scheme does not cover damage caused by forest and vegetation fires."
If your commune does end up officially declared a "catastrophe naturelle" zone because of the current wildfires, that declaration will almost always be about a different peril triggered by the same extreme weather — most commonly drought-related ground movement damaging foundations — not the fire damage to your home. The two are assessed and paid separately.
What actually covers you: garantie incendie
Fire is covered by the garantie incendie built into your ordinary multirisk home insurance (assurance multirisque habitation). It's a completely separate process from CatNat, with its own rules:
- No statutory deductible. Unlike CatNat's fixed franchise, the deductible on a fire claim is whatever your policy specifies — often nil.
- Your own policy's deadline, not CatNat's. As above — often around 5 days, not 30.
- A 6-month assessment window. Under Article L122-2, once a fire claim is properly made, the insurer has up to six months to assess and settle it.
The €5,000 penalty most UK owners won't know about
This is the detail specific to wildfire that doesn't come up with flood or storm claims, and it's genuinely worth checking now, before you need to.
Since a 2023 reform (Loi n° 2023-580, effective 1 October 2023), insurers can apply an additional deductible of up to €5,000 on a forest-fire claim if the property owner hadn't complied with their legal land-clearing obligation — the obligation légale de débroussaillement (OLD) — under the Code forestier.
The OLD requires clearing vegetation within 200 metres of woodland, to a depth of 50 metres around buildings (which a mayor can extend to 100 metres locally). If your property sits near forest or scrubland — exactly the kind of location affected by the current wildfires — and this hasn't been kept up, your insurer can reduce your payout by up to €5,000 regardless of how the fire started. Conversely, insurers may offer a premium reduction for owners who can show they've complied.
For a UK owner of a French holiday home near woodland, this is worth checking now: confirm whether your property falls within an OLD zone (your mairie or préfecture can confirm this), and keep some record — photos, an invoice for clearing work — that you've met the obligation. It's a cheap thing to get right and an expensive thing to get caught out on.
Once a claim is settled, two further questions typically follow: whether the payout itself is taxable (see our guide to is a French insurance payout taxable), and what happens to your taxe foncière and wealth tax (IFI) bill if the property was destroyed or badly damaged (see our guide to fire-damaged property and taxe foncière/IFI).
Common mistakes
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Waiting for a "catastrophe naturelle" declaration before claiming fire damage. Fire isn't a CatNat peril at all — claim under your ordinary policy immediately, on the policy's own deadline.
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Assuming the CatNat 30-day window applies to your fire claim. It doesn't — your policy's own claim deadline governs, and it's often much shorter.
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Not checking débroussaillement compliance. A property near woodland that hasn't met its legal clearing obligation can face a penalty deductible of up to €5,000 on a fire claim, regardless of how the fire started.
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Assuming a drought-related CatNat declaration in your area also covers your fire damage. It's a separate peril, assessed and compensated separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does France's natural disaster insurance (CatNat) cover wildfire damage?
No. CatNat only covers damage that's legally considered uninsurable by ordinary means, and fire is compulsorily insurable under French law, so it's excluded from CatNat by definition. Fire damage is covered separately, under the standard fire guarantee in your home insurance policy.
How long do I have to claim for fire damage to my French property?
There's no CatNat-style official deadline to wait for, because CatNat doesn't apply. Your ordinary policy sets its own claim deadline, commonly around 5 business days from the loss — though this has been extended for the current 2026 fires; see our news update for details.
Can my insurer reduce my payout because of uncleared vegetation near my property?
Yes, since October 2023. If your property is subject to the legal land-clearing obligation (débroussaillement) and it wasn't complied with, insurers can apply an extra deductible of up to €5,000 on a forest-fire claim.
If my area is declared a "catastrophe naturelle" zone after the wildfires, does that help my fire insurance claim?
Not directly. Such a declaration, if made, would relate to a different peril — typically drought-related ground movement — and is assessed and compensated separately from fire damage to your property.
For more on this topic, browse our Declaring Income — Strategies & Pitfalls category.
Sources: Article L125-1, Code des assurances (CatNat scope, uninsurable damage test) · Article L122-1, Code des assurances (compulsory fire cover) · Article L125-2, Code des assurances (30-day CatNat claim deadline) · Géorisques — CatNat compensation scheme scope · Service-public.fr — CatNat process and franchises · Article L122-8/L122-9, Code des assurances (débroussaillement penalty/reduction, Loi n° 2023-580) · Article L134-6, Code forestier (débroussaillement obligation scope) · France 24 — wildfire scale and impact, 25 July 2026 (properties destroyed, Gironde) · Démarches Administratives — fire claim deadline extended to 31 August 2026 (Gironde, Landes, Var; confirms extension is separate from CatNat)