Hello friends. Fortunately, we were not suffered from typhoon but you might feel so sorry and worry about your friends, victims, too. Here is important information for victims. Useful information keeps their lives, their property, their peace. Please read this information to know in case flood, Please share it for your friends not to worry too much, not to haste, not to be late. Good information helps their lives. ーAtsuko(Ü)
Original page is https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/yyy0801/diary/201910140000/
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For all sufferers of Typhoon, 10 Important Advice from a Lawyer
I would like to express my deep sympathy for those suffered from this typhoon.
I’m a chairperson of the committee on disaster recovery assistance in Hiroshima bar association. I have supported the victims who suffered from large-scaled natural disasters happened here in Hiroshima. I would like to send the below 10 advice based on these previous experiences for all victims who are now in agony and sadness.
1, Don’t make too much efforts to remove dirt!
As the dirt flowed to you houses may contain something toxic for your health, you should not make too much efforts to remove it. It will make you exhausted and enhance the risk of the death related to disasters. What is most important is to keep and recover your health. You should wait for the help from the local government or volunteers.
2, Don’t worry about lost things!
The titles you have will never disappear even though you lose some kinds of certificates. Please don’t worry even though you lost precious belongings, such as bank books or a certificate of title.
3, Take photos of your houses!
I highly recommend you to take photos of your suffered houses from various angles. It will be surely useful to get an appropriate disaster damage certificate. The content of the certificate influences the content of public supports you can get. If you have some complaints about the certificate, you can request to estimate the degree of the damage again. Please check the below website that teach you how to take photos. https://www.buzzfeed.com/jp/kazukiwatanabe/20170707
4, Don’t haste to fix your house!
You have to wait for fixing your house until it will get dry. You should consider the entire fixing plan and costs really necessary. If you use some kinds of public support( upper limit is only 584,000 yen,based on “temporary repairs” in the Disaster Relief Law) without deep consideration, that may prevent you from applying for public temporary houses even if your house is not fixed yet.
5, Take a consultation before you pay!
There are various kinds of public supports to aid you as for removing dirt or fixing your house. You should be careful before you decide to pay for private companies these expenses because you might not get public supports once you paid to private companies. I highly recommend you to take free consultation in the city hall. Checking the city websites that have various information is also effective for you.
6, Confirm the content of your insurance!
Recently the most house insurances cover the flood damage. You can also use the household insurance and car insurance. Firstly, you should confirm the holder’s name of insurance. You can receive insurance payments even if you lost the certificate of insurance. When you are not sure about the name of insurance companies or the contents of the insurance contacts, you can call the below general insurance association of Japan. 0120-501331 http://www.sonpo.or.jp/news/information/2019/1910_06.html
7, How to deal with a third party’s belongings.
When you cannot judge whether you can discard the third party’s’ belongings flowed to your properties , you should ask for the city hall or free telephone consultation provided by bar association. Even though you know the holders’ name of something flowed to your house, to ask experts for help is safer to keep the good relationship with neighbors. If you want to take consultation at once, please call the below number and make reservation. 0570-783-110 If you don’t have to hurry, I recommend you to wait for opening the free telephone consultation provided by each local bar association.
8, For those who lost incomes
If you find difficult to earn living because of the loss of your workplace or sudden temporary workoff, you can use various kinds of public supports such as employment insurance, business loan, group subsidies aim to encourage the area recovery.As there are systems to support employers, please confirm what information is useful for you by asking for city hall or free telephone consultation. You can also consult lawyers how to reschedule your repayment plan.
9, Reduction and Exemption from taxes
There are really various kinds of public supports such as reductions and exemptions of some kinds of taxes, exceptional rule of utility costs, subsidies for education fee,when large-scaled disasters happen. As there might be some areas where administrations still don’t function, you should wait for setting the consultation system. The below Cabinet Office website provide you useful information. http://www.bousai.go.jp/kyoiku/pdf/kakusyuseido_tsuujou.pdf
10, You can surely recover your life again!
I can imagine you don’t know what to do from now on losing your house or belongings. The victims of torrential rains at Western Japan in 2018 experienced same feelings. However it’s possible you recover your life through using various systems that can strongly support you, such as subsidies for recovery, donations, insurance, loans, the system to removal of duplicated loans. There is also a special loan for elders to fix or reconstruct the house. I know It’s difficult for you to understand unexpected difficult things. That’s why we lawyers are here. As the most consultation fee will be free, you may use such kinds of consultations, even though you think it’s tiny things.
These are the messages from me, a lawyer who has heard from many sufferers’ voices in twice torrential rains disasters in 2014 and 2018.
I avoided to use academic legal terms in order to make my messages be easier to understand. Please share these messages with those now in agonies.
