Compensation for property damaged by terrorist and military operations

A house destroyed in a bombing, a shop burnt out, a car damaged in a military operation: all of these are property damage compensated under Law No. 20 of 2009, provided the damage resulted from a terrorist operation, a military operation or a military error. The claim is filed with the sub-committee in the governorate, which records the damage and assesses its severity; the decision then goes through an approval stage before payment.

The overall framework is on the Compensation for People Injured in Terrorist Operations page.

Is the property damage actually covered?

Article 2 of the Law lists among covered harm "damage to property". The Law in its amended form covers every Iraqi, natural or legal person. A homeowner, a company that owns a warehouse, or a body that owns a vehicle all fall within its scope if the cause of the damage is established.

To separate this route from neighbouring ones, the office first asks about the cause of the damage:

• if it was a terrorist operation, a military operation or a military error, the route is Law No. 20 of 2009;
• if the State took the property for public benefit, the route is expropriation and its laws, not this Law;
• if it was an ordinary traffic accident, the route is compulsory insurance and a civil claim, not this Law.

How does the committee assess the damage?

Under Article 6, the sub-committee records the damage and assesses its severity in light of the bases that the Ministry of Finance issues, and Article 15 of the Law gives the Ministry of Finance power to issue the bases and method for compensation claims. The assessment may therefore differ from a figure the owner or a contractor puts forward: the committee measures against the official bases, not against a proposed rebuilding cost.

For legal persons such as companies, Instructions No. 4 of 2018 provide that the Ministry of Finance's Property Compensation Bases No. 1 of 2017 apply.

What is usually examined in a property file:

• Proof of ownership or possession: the title deed or its equivalent, or the vehicle's ownership document.
• Proof of the event: investigation papers linking the damage to the covered operation.
• Description of the damage: enough to allow the committee to inspect and record it.

Who approves a property compensation decision?

Here the 2020 amendment made a practical change. Sub-committee decisions on property compensation that do not exceed a monetary ceiling set in the text are sent to the presidency of the governorate's Court of Appeal for approval, then referred to the Ministry of Finance for payment, with copies sent to the Central Committee for electronic archiving. Other property recommendations follow the approval track before the Central Committee, which under Article 5 may approve, amend or cancel sub-committee recommendations on property compensation once the objection period has passed.

The amended Law also gives the public prosecutor a role in reviewing the legality of these decisions to protect public funds. That stage is part of the process, and delay there delays approval.

Payment after approval

The Ministry of Finance, through the governorate concerned, pays compensation for property damage under approved decisions. Payment follows the order of the dates on which decisions were issued, and the Ministry of Finance must allocate compensation funds in each governorate's budget within the annual federal budget law. Time may therefore pass between the decision and the payment, which depends on the budget allocation and not only on the file.

No double compensation for the same damage

Article 8 of the Law prohibits combining compensation under it with compensation for the same damage under another law. If another body compensated the owner for part of the damage, the gap between the amount received and the entitlement under this Law is paid. The office therefore asks the client about any amount already received for the same damage, from an insurer or a government body, because leaving it out may rebound on the file.

If you disagree with the committee's assessment

The owner may object to a sub-committee decision or recommendation before the Central Committee within sixty days from the day after notification, on the basis of new documents or papers, and may then challenge the Central Committee's decision before the Administrative Judiciary Court. See Objection and challenge before the Administrative Judiciary Court.

What the office does

The office reviews the title documents and the investigation papers before filing, follows the inspection and recording of damage before the sub-committee, studies the decision and its assessment after notification, and considers whether an objection is well founded. The value of the damage and the amount of compensation are read from the inspection record and from the committee’s decision under the applicable text.

Legal basis and sources

1. Law No. 20 of 2009, Articles 2, 5, 6, 8 and 15 — Al-Waqai Al-Iraqiya, issue 4140
2. Second Amendment Law No. 2 of 2020 (Al-Waqai Al-Iraqiya, issue 4571)
3. Instructions No. 4 of 2018, Article 11 (Al-Waqai Al-Iraqiya, issue 4516)
4. Law No. 20 of 2009, Articles 2, 5, 6, 8 and 15 (Al-Waqai Al-Iraqiya, issue 4140).

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01The compensation sub-committee and the Central Committee: who decides what?The governorate compensation sub-committee, the Central Committee in Baghdad and ministry committees under Iraq's Law No. 20 of 2009.
• 02Objecting to a compensation committee decision and challenging it before the Administrative Judiciary CourtObjecting to an Iraqi compensation sub-committee decision before the Central Committee within sixty days, then challenging it in court.
• 03Military errors and war operations: who else does the Law compensate besides victims of terrorism?Iraq's Law No. 20 of 2009 also compensates people harmed by war operations and military errors, not only terrorism victims. How proof differs.
• 04Medical report and disability percentage in a terrorism injury compensation fileHow the medical committee sets the disability percentage for terrorism injuries in Iraq, how it shapes entitlement, and the five-yearly re-examination.
• 05Compensation for the families of martyrs, missing and kidnapped persons under Law No. 20 of 2009Who counts as a martyr's family under Iraq's Law No. 20 of 2009, how grants are shared, and how a missing or kidnapped person's file proceeds.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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