Revised Flood Risk

tangleteeth

I have lived in my current house for 25 years and over that time have had home insurance with a number of providers - none of whom considered I was in a flood risk area. For the last 3 years I have been insured via a broker with Axa.
At renewal this year they have reviewed the risk of flooding and have increased the premium from £300 to £1400, with a £7500 flooding excess.
The house is located about 150 metres from a brook, and if you look at the Environment Agency flood maps there is no risk of flooding where we are.
Are there other sources of information that insurers use to determine flood risk, or are they getting more paranoid about flooding ?

What mostly concerns me is that if this insurer has taken this position then eventually the others will follow, and worse - this could have an impact on the value of the property.

Is it possible to get flood cover removed from a policy ?

Doc_N

tangleteeth wrote: »

I have lived in my current house for 25 years and over that time have had home insurance with a number of providers - none of whom considered I was in a flood risk area. For the last 3 years I have been insured via a broker with Axa.
At renewal this year they have reviewed the risk of flooding and have increased the premium from £300 to £1400, with a £7500 flooding excess.
The house is located about 150 metres from a brook, and if you look at the Environment Agency flood maps there is no risk of flooding where we are.
Are there other sources of information that insurers use to determine flood risk, or are they getting more paranoid about flooding ?

What mostly concerns me is that if this insurer has taken this position then eventually the others will follow, and worse - this could have an impact on the value of the property.

Is it possible to get flood cover removed from a policy ?

Yes it is possible to remove flood cover - but obviously very risky.

Insurers take various factors into account when deciding risk. One will be the information they get from the Environment Agency (probably a good deal more detailed than the version we see) and another will be their own claims experience.

Another company may well give you a much lower premium - and it will also make a difference whether each company drills right down to the full postcode, rather than just part of it. That may help you - or it may not - depending on the risk, if any, to your particular property.

dacouch

If you remove flood cover you will probably be breaching your mortgage conditions which normally require flood cover to protect the mortgage providers security.

Try Aviva

tangleteeth

Mortgage paid off so no worries on that front.

This brook meanders its way into the town about a mile away and there have been problems there in low lying areas. The local council are starting to build on the land, but the Environment Agency have built an overflow system about 2 miles upstream from where we are, and this takes excess water from the brook into a nearby major river, so no chance of any flooding near us.
Anyway, I've tried two comparison sites, declaring my proximity to water, and have found a couple of suitable quotes from well known providers.
Thanks for your responses.

pigpen

It appears they are trying to scam money out of a lot of people by adding 'flood risk' to their property. My house has been standing 126 years and not once flooded.. even when other parts of the town have flooded.. it is a total scam and they have increased my monthly premium from £53 to £250!!! Absolute daylight robbery!