Browse Sections

• Food and drink
• Personal finance 
• Health and beauty
• Dating
• Holidays
• Hotels

Don't be left high and dry

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Money
7/ 4/2008

LAST summer, the UK witnessed its worst flooding in years, causing more than £3 billion worth of damage.

Among those affected were Which? members Julian and Peggy Stocker, from Gloucestershire.

They were woken in the night by water seeping into their ground-floor bedroom.

Within two hours, the water level had risen to 45cm (18 inches). "It happened so fast. There was no warning," Julian told

us.

A combination of a nearby river bursting its banks and poorly maintained ditches and drains in neighbouring fields led to the flooding.

It left the Stockers' recently renovated, grade-II listed cottage in ruins, along with much of the village.

Julian called his insurer, NatWest, straightaway. However, it was more than two weeks, instead of the promised 24 hours, before a loss adjuster visited them.

An emergency sanitising service, which was part of their insurance contract, never materialised. With further delays, it was

four months before the insurer finally granted permission to undertake repairs.

Julian said: `NatWest has been fair, just incredibly slow.' The couple expect to move back home this month - 10 months

months after the flooding.

A SLOW PROCESS

While minor claims can be dealt with in a matter of days or weeks, more extreme cases can take considerably longer to

resolve.

Before repair work can begin, properties need to dry out - a process that can take several months.

According to the Association of British Insurers, only 42 per cent of claims resulting from the summer floods had been fully dealt with by December 2007.

A further 40 per cent had received interim payments. This means many flood victims were still living in temporary accommodation at Christmas.

There are several things you can do to speed up a claim. These include retaining damaged items for inspection, keeping a note of perishables (food) thrown away and, ideally, taking photos of the damage.

Attach to your claim form photos and receipts for any emergency repairs you have arranged.

THE RISKS

With rising sea levels, the number of people at high risk of flooding in England and Wales is set to double to more than

three million by 2050. However, it's important to remember that many households affected by last summer's floods were not on flood plains, but were the victims of unprecedented surface water flooding and insufficient drainage.

ARE YOU COVERED?

Last summer's floods demonstrated the importance of being adequately insured.

Yes, price is important, but it's equally important to get the right cover. There are two main types.

With a bedroom-rated policy, premiums are based on the number of bedrooms in your home. There is usually a set amount of cover, so it's important to check that this is enough for you.

With a sum-insured policy, you work out how much cover you need and the insurer calculates the premium on that basis.

Many people find that they're underinsured when they claim on their contents insurance because they've undervalued their belongings.

You may think that your current deal covers you adequately, but it is worth checking.

Some policies automatically cover contents up to a certain amount as standard (Churchill covers up to £40,000), but this may not be enough, as the value of the contents of the average family home is £42,000.

SHOP AROUND

Insurance premiums have risen as a result of the flooding in 2007, but you can make huge savings by shopping around. For example, we found that a sum-insured contents policy offered by Best Buy Admiral for a flood-risk postcode in Hull was £369 cheaper than that quoted by Liverpool Victoria.

Discounts are often available if you buy insurance online. We found that you could save an average of 23 per cent on buildings insurance by buying online and an average of 26 per cent on contents cover.