Home insurance previous flood damage

Funkysgirl

Following the nationwide floods in 2007 our house was found to have secondary? flooding (we bought the house in 2013). The damage was discovered in 2008 by the previous owner and she claimed on her insurance (over £60,000) resulting in membrane being put under the house, new floors, carpets, kitchen and bathroom.
When we bought the house from her she told us we would have to stay with her insurer due to the claim which we did. The monthly payments are high..£46 per month and I am anxious to reduce these due to a decrease in monthly income. Does anyone know if I have to stay with the insurer? Anyone have experience with this? All advice much appreciated.

Zorillo

You are under no obligation to stay with the insurer whatsoever.

Shop around. There may be an insurer willing to offer cheaper cover, or there may not.

It is likely the previous owner intended their words to be taken as a warning/advice rather than an instruction.

AstroTurtle

If you are to shop around focus on cover first and not price.

YOU WILL be able to find cheaper insurance, but it may not be better.

Once you've have multiple quotes of identical and suitable covers then focus on get the price on them down and comparing.

Read the small print on flooding exclusions etc & excesses.

You don't want to face another doomsday scenario and be facing a loss of £60,000 yourself which turns out isn't covered because you saved £10pm on your insurance.

I'd probably avoid comparison sites on this one given the property history, Maybe even contact a broker that can help you.

Funkysgirl

Thanks for your responses....sound advice indeed.

Quentin

The reason for the vendor telling you about this issue is that the original insurer may be the only one who will cover any future flood damage

So before changing be sure any new insurer will give you this cover

Liz_Mitchell

Your property is likely to be included in the Government Flood Re scheme which is designed to aid owners of prev flooded homes. I'm assuming the secondary flooding was via groundwater so please be careful if you shop around as many insurance policies exclude groundwater flooding so check that this is not the case with any quotes you get