The UK has seen a relatively dry summer in 2011; however the wet weather of the last few days brings back concerns for numerous home owners across the country about heavy rainfall and flooding.
An independent specialist insurance broker has been receiving a lot of enquiries this year from property owners and below are a selection outlying their questions.
“We would be very grateful if you could call us as soon as possible. We live in a detached £825,000 property near Stratford upon Avon and are looking for buildings and contents insurance. The rebuild cost insured is £580,000. We have a clean claims record.
Like one of the testimonials left by one of your customers, we have recently found out that our present insurer is withdrawing from the insurance market and our policy expires shortly. The property in which we live is not in a flood plain, but has a drainage ditch which flooded due to a blocked culvert in the 2007 floods.
I want to buy a house that is near the River Thames but no one will insure us
The previous owners made a claim for this in 2007. It is not in a flood risk area but, due to the claim we have found that many high street names will not offer us replacement insurance. The previous owners also made a claim of £650 for what was suspected to be subsidence but turned out to be an old crack in the skin of the wall due to seasonal shrinkage in the clay soil. Drainage work at a cost of £650 was carried out and the problem was resolved. No further evidence of movement has appeared. We would be very grateful if you could give us a ring. Many thanks”
We live in a wonderful river side house on the Thames the garden leads down to the river it’s a superb property although there is a considerable slope to the river which stops any possible flood ever reaching the river we were forced to pay astronomical premiums without flood cover until we found a true specialist without flood cover we could not continue with our mortgage and the home was worthless in addition we have a riverside flat in Chelsea although this is built on huge pilings above the River Thames we could not get cover for that either
We are looking at purchasing a property in Boscastle, North Cornwall. Before proceeding, we would like a quote for holiday home insurance (buildings and contents) and although this area is known previously for it\'s flooding, we have heard favourable reports about your insurance cover. The property is a 2 bedroom apartment. It would be appreciated if you could give us an indication of the insurance premium before we proceed”
“We need building and contents insurance as we are looking at buying a property that was damaged by flooding in 2007”
I live near the Dartford crossing in Kent, about a mile to the left of my house is the river Thames as that is about 150 feet below the house it will never flood my house ! To the right of my property is a small stream the River Cray its over 300 yards from the house BUT its over a hundred foot below the level of my house and there are five rows of houses between me and river no normal insurer will talk to me ! the issue is that although the flood maps are checked they are 2 dimensional and no normal insurer has the sense to to look at the lay of the land and see that I am on the top of a hill that happens throughout the whole country with out cover I cannot get a mortgage so the house is un salable and worthless.
If you are about to renew your property’s insurance and found that your insurance provider has increased the premium dramatically because you live in a flood area, or the property is located in a “Post Code Zone” that has flooding even though yours is not affected, OR you if you were insured with the insurer National Insurance and Guarantee who withdrew from the market last year and no one else wants to help you get cover again
The Environment Agency has an excellent mapping site that you can find out if you are within a “flood” area.
http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=531500.0&y=181500.0&topic=floodmap&ep=map&scale=3&location=London,%20City%20of%20London&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&textonly=off
For more information on insurance for Flood damaged property follow this link http://www.jml-insurance.co.uk/types.php?id=81&sec=1
2 comments:
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Thanks for sharing. Interesting subject and well written. Hope to be back soon and see more stuff. Compare life insurance prices
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