Flooding and Insurance: A Guide

In the light of the torrential rains we've seen at times recently (and any more to come), local residents may find it useful to have more information on what to do in the event of being caught up in flooding and needing to claim on their insurance cover.

The following list of tips have been produced by the organisation that I work for - the British Insurance Brokers' Association.

http://www.biba.org.uk/InsuranceGuides.aspx?Id=11&heading=Flood+Advice

The British Insurance Brokers' Association have also worked with a number of different agencies on a guide to obtaining insurance for people living in high risk areas prone to flooding:

http://www.biba.org.uk/UploadedFiles/564floodinsuranceguid.pdf

BIBA also has a Find A Broker website and helpline that consumers can use free of charge to help locate a broker in their area or by type of insurance that they are looking for. This currently gets hundreds of thousands of calls every year from consumers unable to find cover. In most cases our brokers can find cover for difficult cases that the comparison websites and insurers have rejected, so it is worth giving it a try.

http://www.biba.org.uk/CustomerHome.aspx

You may also have seen something in the media about the Flood Insurance Statement of Principles which the Government and the Association of British Insurers signed coming to an end recently. For now ABI members will voluntarily continue to meet their commitment to continue to offer flood cover to existing customers under the previous Flood Insurance Statement of Principles.

The ABI and the Government have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on how to develop a not-for-profit scheme - Flood Re - that would ensure flood insurance remains widely affordable and available. The MoU is a first step towards establishing Flood Re, and confirms it as the Government's preferred option.

Providing operational issues, including governance and regulatory approval, are resolved, the aim is for Flood Re to be up and running by summer 2015, with regular progress reviews taking place to ensure Flood Re can proceed.