Living in a flat or apartment in a higher-risk flood area and struggling to get contents insurance?
At Fairweather Insurance Services, we hear from lots of flat-dwellers who assumed that living in a flat above the ground floor would significantly reduce their risk of flood and therefore make it easier and cheaper for them to insure their contents.
After all, you tell us, surely the flood water would have to go a long way up from the foundations and ground floor before it gets to me? And this area has never flooded anyway! How many floods of biblical proportions are we likely to get? Well yes, we understand that you are potentially more protected physically on a higher floor, but as for reducing your insurance risk – sorry, no.
Well, you say, surely in our block the freeholder takes the responsibility for the whole building so where’s the problem with insuring our contents? Why can we not get contents insurance just because this area is assessed as a flood risk?
All good reasoning but….the computer often says “no”, and the upshot is many flat-owners are struggling to get contents insurance in flood risk areas.
Living in an apartment block or in a flat above commercial premises such as a shop, you normally don’t need buildings insurance as that is covered in the overall buildings cover. However, when you seek to cover your flat contents for all ‘normal’ contents risks, the determining factor will be the region’s risk of flood, regardless of how far the pavement is from your balcony….
For example, flooding in the ground or basement floors of flats can undermine the foundations and ultimately affect the whole block. Similarly, flooding in or near a block could knock out electricity and other services for a time, which could affect all flats and lead to claims. Floods can affect sewerage services which can also affect a wider range of properties. Another important factor that has to be considered is access to the property in the event of a flood. So an individual flat would not be considered independently of the block position and the wider area. And where there has been a flood claim in recent years, some people are finding insurers will not even quote.
OK, but now you are in a flat in a flood-risk area, or considering buying one, how can we help you insure your contents? At Fairweather Insurance, unlike many other brokers, we have the capability to consider individual risks and write personal insurance policies, backed by one of Britain’s largest insurance companies. We can determine and explain to the insurance company that a given property is on an upper floor and not really at risk of flooding to enable the risk to be more fairly and sensibly assessed.
So the Fairweather team has been able to provide personalised contents cover to people in flats even where the property is considered to be at risk of flood.
If this situation applies to you, or anyone you know, contact us today for a confidential discussion about your requirements or read more about our flood risk inusrance.
