85% of insurance claims related to Tai Po fire settled, totalling HK$510 million
Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority says insurers have settled more than 1,000 claims related to damages caused by deadly blaze last November
Around 85 per cent of insurance claims for damage caused by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades have been settled, with nearly HK$510 million (US$65.3 million) paid out in total, the industry’s regulator has said.
The Insurance Authority said on Tuesday that firms had settled 1,032 claims related to the Tai Po blaze that broke out last November, accounting for around 85 per cent of them.
“The [authority] is aware that a majority of claims have been successfully settled based on the principle of treating customers fairly, and the remaining claims call for on-site inspections and damage assessments,” the regulator’s CEO, Clement Cheung Wan-ching, said.
“We will continue to follow up actively with the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers.”
The blaze swept through seven of the eight residential blocks of Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, which was being renovated at the time, killing 168 people and displacing nearly 5,000 residents.
Among the settled cases, 863 were general claims with a total value of HK$450 million, representing 84 per cent of all claims under this category. The remaining 169 were long-term claims with a combined value of HK$60 million, with a settlement rate of 90 per cent.