The Emergency Situations Ministry has drafted a bill that would require apartment and business owners to purchase liability insurance to cover damages to third parties incurred in a fire on the owner's property.
The proposed legislation comes in the wake of a deadly blaze at a Perm nightclub in December that left 152 people dead and prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to order fire safety inspections nationwide.
The bill would speed up financial compensation for victims and protect property owners from insolvency because of fire damage, Alexei Zubets, a senior analyst with state insurance company Rosgosstrakh, said Thursday
The ministry will submit the bill to the government and the State Duma within the next three months, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu told a news conference Thursday, Interfax reported.
Under current laws, fire victims must go through the courts to receive compensatory damages. If signed into law, the bill would allow victims to appeal directly to insurance companies without necessarily having to go to court, Zubets said.
The bill could provide welcome relief for apartment owners whose property is damaged by a neighbor's fire, said Galina Gulyayeva, head of the center for liability insurance at the Rosno insurance company.
Currently, injured parties "may wait for years for compensation" from a court ruling in such cases, Gulyayeva said.
The bill would require insurance companies to pay $34,000 to the family of a third party who dies in a fire; up to $33,000 to third party injured in a fire; and up to $16,000 to a third party whose property is damaged in a fire.