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Assetsure News 12th October 2007
Is My Home Going to
Flood?
The above question is one that has been subject to much debate up and
down the country and almost every home owner wants to know the
possibility that their home will flood. In previous years,
uk home insurance rates have been
mainly effected by the chances of your home suffering damage by
subsidence (subsidence claims are usually expensive). This now seems
to be on the change and with an average flood claim costing in excess
of £20,000 future
building insurance uk rate increases
may well be driven by the chances of your property flooding.
According to the Environment Agency's own figures, ( and they should
know) more than 5 million people live in 2.3 million properties in
England and Wales that are at risk from flooding. The Association of
British Insurers who naturally are very worried about climate change
and its effects on claims has calculated that between 950,000 and 1.2
million properties have been built on floodplains.
Despite several large incidents of flooding in recent years, and a
prediction from the
ABI that the problem is set to grow
ten-fold over this century, there is little evidence that house buyers
are researching whether their potential home could be at risk.
The logical place to go for flood information about your home is the
governments on web site, run by the
environmental agency. . this
website offers a lot of useful quality information especially relating
to flooding and if you input your own postcode it will provide you
with flood information relating to your own home. However, the
quality of this information is not fantastic and it fails on the most
important count of showing the actual location of the home in relation
to the areas of flooding.
A further let down to home owners is the
Home Information pack. These
controversial packs which must be supplied to potential purchasers of
all houses of three or more bedrooms ( this is being extended) offers
no information on flood risk, despite requests from various factions
that vital flood information be included. You would think that any
potential purchaser of a home would be more interested in then likely
hood of it flooding rather than its energy efficiency and quality of
electrical appliances., ah well !
Without doubt the best quality flood information maps are kept firmly
in the grasp of the insurance companies, they are not predisposed to
sharing these with the general public as this information is
commercially sensitive, the insurance company with the best flood map
information is more likely to be able to underwrite for profit, some
thing very close to the hearts of most insurance underwriters and PLC
insurers under constant pressure to deliver dividends for
shareholders. However, help is at hand for a very modest fee of
£15.00, you can visit this website
whatsmyfloodrisk.co.uk and they will
give you excellent information relating to the possibility of flooding
at your property. If you are considering a new home and are worried
about insurance or the ability to source insurance including flood
cover then this really is a very small price to pay.
Although the information is most useful, it does not supply
information about past flooding incidents caused by block drains or
broken water supply pipes. If your
home has suffered damage from flooding in the past, you may find an
insurer more sympathetic if you are able to discover the cause of the
flooding, blocked drains cause by the inefficiency of the local
authority to clean the streets or by a water boards lack of
infrastructure maintenance may be viewed in a different light by an
insurance company ( don't forget to tell them) provided the necessary
remedial work has been carried out. Similarly speaking an area that
has flooded because a river has broken its banks may be treated more
leniently if following the incident, better quality flood defences are
introduced.
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Copyright Assetsure Limited 2007
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