Home Insurance for property in flood risk area, previous owner mentioned flooding

dacouch

lkjlkjlkj wrote: »

>I'm a property insurance broker, and you need to be telling your insurers about this.

Yes they're thoroughly aware that it's a high flood risk area - I'm not debating that. The home insurance is of course higher than for a 'normal' house, at £400-£800. I just want to know whether or not I can get away with saying that "to the best of my knowledge, the property itself has never flooded". And considering that the previous owner said that no claim related to flooding was ever filed, I think I might be able to?

What do you think Rossim1985? With Aviva at least, when I mentioned the (again now, AFAIK, mythical) flooding, the premium shot up to > £1500.

They will be aware the property is in a high risk flooding area so property premiums will be inflated to match this. They go further and ask if the property has ever flooded. If the answer to this then most Insurers will decline to provide a quotation.

No one can give you a 100% accurate answer especially as you seem to only want an answer telling you not to worry. The simple answer is if you take the risk you will not know if you have got away with it until you make a claim especially a flood claim. This is when they take the time to look further and there's a good chance they will discover the properties in your road were flooded so the chances are your property also flooded. If this happens your claim will be denied and your policy declared void meaning you will find it very very difficult to obtain any type of insurance including car insurance.

It's feasible some Insurers may even discover the flooding before you make a claim and in return void your policy along with the implications that causes.

You will not find anyone who can give you a definative answer as to whether you can get away with telling lies to your Insurer only people who can warn you of the possible implications.

Do not under estimate the abilities of an Insurer to find the truth out, it's what they do all day every day. The internet makes it even easier for them to discover previous flooding

Archergirl

If it was only the garage that flooded, would it be posible to get cover just for the house and not the garage? Is there much distance between them? Just a thought sorry if it's stupid.

lkjlkjlkj

They will be aware the property is in a high risk flooding area so property premiums will be inflated to match this.

Yes I know. That's fair enough.

whether you can get away with telling lies to your Insurer

My point is that it is only the word of the previous owner I have to go on. Why should I just assume it's 100% true? What if I'm not satisfied of that being concrete proof? Is that unreasonable? I honestly don't think what I'm suggesting has to be construed as a blatant lie...because if it is, you're saying that EVERYTHING the previous owner said MUST BE TRUE.

Furthermore, I'd like to know, how much proof does an insurer need to be 'legally convinced' that my property flooded? Again, I have seen no proof. There are stories of the area flooding at the time, but no specific photos of my property flooded, as far as I know. I know I'm suggesting taking a bit of a risk, that's why I'm asking here for more opinions!

If it was only the garage that flooded, would it be posible to get cover just for the house and not the garage? Is there much distance between them? Just a thought sorry if it's stupid.

Nah, house is on top of garage, so no go

Thanks again

rs65

lkjlkjlkj wrote: »

My point is that it is only the word of the previous owner I have to go on. Why should I just assume it's 100% true?

You know its true.

lkjlkjlkj

You know its true.

I genuinely don't. I only know that "the owner said this".

dacouch

lkjlkjlkj wrote: »

Yes I know. That's fair enough.



My point is that it is only the word of the previous owner I have to go on. Why should I just assume it's 100% true? What if I'm not satisfied of that being concrete proof? Is that unreasonable? I honestly don't think what I'm suggesting has to be construed as a blatant lie...because if it is, you're saying that EVERYTHING the previous owner said MUST BE TRUE.

Furthermore, I'd like to know, how much proof does an insurer need to be 'legally convinced' that my property flooded? Again, I have seen no proof. There are stories of the area flooding at the time, but no specific photos of my property flooded, as far as I know. I know I'm suggesting taking a bit of a risk, that's why I'm asking here for more opinions!



Nah, house is on top of garage, so no go

Thanks again

You're trying justifying miss leading the Insurer to yourself, how likely do you think someone is to lie about their house flooding when they're trying to sell you it which I presume costs £150k.

Do you really think they would lie about this and if so why do you think they would lie?

There are many ways they can confirm the area flooded including the local newspaper reports, environment agency etc etc. There's also a good chance they would have been one of the Insurers for one or more of your neighboors.

Insurers are very very strict on flood and fire claims, they check to ensure the claim is valid and everything was declared to them. If they suspect you're telling lies they will ask you to provide a written explaination as to why you did not declare it and / or know about previous flooding. If they're not happy they will simply not pay the claim and void your policy. It's as simple as that.

Insurers come across people in flood risk areas like you who think they can conceal previous flooding because they don't like the premiums. Do you really believe they when they receive a flood claim from you in the future they will not check the records for flooding in the area for the last fifty odd years?

Do not under estimate who efficient Insurers are of discovering people who tell lies. What you're proposing is technically fraud.

Rossim1985

dacouch wrote: »

You're trying justifying miss leading the Insurer to yourself

I'm afraid I have to completely agree with dacouch here. Just tell them the truth, i.e. you have this letter but you don't know of any previous flooding yourself.

Also you are wasting your time going to the Insurers directly. Like I said before you will get a much better deal going through a good local broker. I'm not just saying that because I am one, it's the truth! They have access to actual humans making decisions rather than some idiot in a call center who knows nothing about insurance who is following a script / computer read out.

A good friend of mine's parents house flooded last winter, the water was only just above the skirting board, but the total claim with all the drying out, new carpets and skirting, plasterboard etc came to just shy of the £40k mark. The house had never flooded previously in some 20 plus years but others in his street had, and the Insurers went through the proposal form with a very fine toothed comb. One of the questions asked at policy inception was how far away is the nearest water course, and the distance given was wrong (further than it actually was). Initially the Insurers were looking to throw out the claim on this basis.

This just proves that is no point in hiding anything to save yourself a few hundred quid now when in the event of a claim you could potentially lose tens of thousands, not to mention find it almost impossible to source insurance in the future.

Try a local broker though, hopefully they should be able to improve upon the £1,500 Aviva quoted. They may also be able to give you higher excess options for a saving, i.e. a £2,500 excess for say knocking £300 off the premium.

dacouch

Rossim1985 wrote: »

I'm afraid I have to completely agree with dacouch here. Just tell them the truth, i.e. you have this letter but you don't know of any previous flooding yourself.

Also you are wasting your time going to the Insurers directly. Like I said before you will get a much better deal going through a good local broker. I'm not just saying that because I am one, it's the truth! They have access to actual humans making decisions rather than some idiot in a call center who knows nothing about insurance who is following a script / computer read out.

A good friend of mine's parents house flooded last winter, the water was only just above the skirting board, but the total claim with all the drying out, new carpets and skirting, plasterboard etc came to just shy of the £40k mark. The house had never flooded previously in some 20 plus years but others in his street had, and the Insurers went through the proposal form with a very fine toothed comb. One of the questions asked at policy inception was how far away is the nearest water course, and the distance given was wrong (further than it actually was). Initially the Insurers were looking to throw out the claim on this basis.

This just proves that is no point in hiding anything to save yourself a few hundred quid now when in the event of a claim you could potentially lose tens of thousands, not to mention find it almost impossible to source insurance in the future.

Try a local broker though, hopefully they should be able to improve upon the £1,500 Aviva quoted. They may also be able to give you higher excess options for a saving, i.e. a £2,500 excess for say knocking £300 off the premium.

It's worth bearing in mind some many mortgage providers have a maximum excess they will accept on a building policy so it's worth checking with the mortgage provider before committing to a large excess

lkjlkjlkj

OK guys, that's enough to convince me to tell them what the previous owner said. Thank you for bearing with me, I know I've been a bit stubborn xxx

Indeed, so far I have been using a local broker, in 2011 it was ~£600, but by 2013 it was £900. They told me they were literally running out of cheaper options; all the insurers are being mean on flood risk properties. Oh well...

Thanks again

Cap_Hero

Honesty always pays with insurers or they will try to wriggle out of a claim in my humble experience. Still, I would check out as many insurance price comparison sites as possible, look at the usual suspects but also niche comparison sites such as https://www.justquoteme.co.uk

Do shop around and check the small print when you compare the policies you have shortlisted to get the best deal and best cover.

All the best.