House Insurance - property previously flooded...

Pepperoni

We are buying a property which in the past had their kitchen flooded. This was caused by a blocked drains in a commercial property at the back of the house, meaning the water had nowhere to go. It's the only time there's been a flood since the house was built.

When filling in house insurance - do I need to tick that their has been a flood in the past? I can't work out if it just needs ticked if it was a flood from 'natural causes' i.e. not because drains were blocked etc. It says don't tick it if the flood was caused by burst pipes etc...

Thanks.

POPPYOSCAR

How would you even know when you were not living there at the time;)

always_sunny

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

How would you even know when you were not living there at the time;)

If it was declared it in the seller forms would be a breach not to declare it for insurance purposes.

POPPYOSCAR

Why would you have to declare that your kitchen had been flooded from blocked drains on a seller form?

Not sold a house for a long time.

Pepperoni

Our seller has declared it on their forms That's how we found out, we had no idea about it beforehand.

always_sunny

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Why would you have to declare that your kitchen had been flooded from blocked drains on a seller form?

Not sold a house for a long time.

There is a question asking if any part of the property was ever flooded.
But yeah should be difference between river flooding vs blocked drain flooding!
I can only guess the seller must have felt worth reporting it which nevertheless it becomes a requirement for the OP!

OP: you could call the insurance company and ask them... you could do that without leaving your details as well.

POPPYOSCAR

always_sunny wrote: »

There is a question asking if any part of the property was ever flooded.
But yeah should be difference between river flooding vs blocked drain flooding!
I can only guess the seller must have felt worth reporting it which nevertheless it becomes a requirement for the OP!

OP: you could call the insurance company and ask them... you could do that without leaving your details as well.

I see.

But if it says not to tick the box if the flood is due to burst pipes etc.
would that not cover blocked drains?

EachPenny

always_sunny wrote: »

OP: you could call the insurance company and ask them... you could do that without leaving your details as well.

So long as the company don't harvest your phone number, or you keep it hidden.

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

But if it says not to tick the box if the flood is due to burst pipes etc.
would that not cover blocked drains?

Having been a drainage engineer once upon a time I would say a flood caused by a simple blocked drain with no involvement of a river etc should be classed as the same type of event as a burst pipe. But the only way of knowing is to call the insurance company and find out.

Most flooding associated with heavy rainfall is actually caused by blocked drains - rivers overflowing is less likely to be the issue, unless you live in a flood plain. So insurance companies may regard blocked drains as a high risk factor - if a drain has blocked once then there is a good chance it will happen again.

G_M

Devil's advocat:

what the difference between

* blocked household drain
* burst household drain
* blocked mains drain in street
* burst mains drain in street
* burst water mains in street
* over-loaded mains drain in street due to intense rain

all of which could 'flood' your house without involvement of a river

???