Flash flood damage

randall73

Hi,

I made a claim on both buildings and contents insurance due to flash floods in July last year. We live in SW London but are nowhere near a river.
My problem is that confused.com says that none of their insurers offer cover to properties that have been 'flooded'. I can understand that they would not be willing to insure people living on flood plains but in my view this doesn't apply to me. I have to mention any claims that have been made on the property and 'flood' is the only relevant option in confused's menu when inputting this information (unless I choose 'storm damage', but this seems tenuous..)
My current insurance has only gone up slightly since last year but I wanted to make sure I was on the best deal..
I'd appreciate any advice on whether this means I'm going to have real problems from insurers in the future and more immediately whether it's a case of getting on the phone to the insurance companies and seeing if their customer service people can use a bit of common sense..

thanks

Maximumtime

Randall

Have to say your right about lifting the phone to speak to customer services. However, common sense is going to be another thing. Sometimes finding a very good local independent broker is best for this type of situation. Something a computer cant do!!

Yoe are right to say "tenuos" about storm damage. If you did opt for that heading and you had a claim due to flood damage I can see the lovely adjuster denying the clain for breach of contract i.e. non disclosure of a material fact. If he or she didnt deny the claim immediately I can see it being passed to the SIU for fraud investigation and it being dumped out after a few months of investigation.

When it comes to insurance co's your best keeping a cleam slate. As if the worst case scenario came about and your policy was cancelled I could see it being extremely difficult to get a new policy as you must disclose to any/all potential insurers that you have had a policy cancelled.

Lift the phone and do a bit of chatting would be my humble advice.

Colin_Kee

Our garage was "flooded", in the losest sense of the word, last July, during those storms as well. I've never heard of the area flooding before. The house was not affected at all (garage is attached to house but is slightly lower, about 100~150mm) we currently rent it and the tennants claimed for some items on their Contents insurance. Should we have to tell our House "Buildings" insurer about this? Should this effect getting insurance in the furture after all it didn't actually effect the house!!

Any advice/experience of this would be appreciated

jessjess_2

If it was on their contents insurance only then you have no insurable interest in these items therefore do not need to disclose it. If however you claimed on your buildings policy then you would have to disclose it.

raskazz

jessjess wrote: »

If it was on their contents insurance only then you have no insurable interest in these items therefore do not need to disclose it. If however you claimed on your buildings policy then you would have to disclose it.

I don't think it's quite as black and white as this. A lot of insurers will ask a question or state an assumption regarding "your property being in an area liable to flood".

Given the events described, unless remedial action has been taken by the authorities or water supplier then you'd have to confirm that your property is at present in an area liable to flood.