Getting flood insurance for homes becomes easier

No one likes to consider the devastating effect that having your home flooded has, the destruction of your possessions, the disruption to your life and the delays in getting your property and possessions dried out and reinstated.

Flooding in the UK has become more commonplace over the past years and whilst standard buildings and contents insurance policies usually provide cover against damage from flooding there have been several serious floods which have resulted in insurers increasing their flood rates, applying increased excesses or in certain cases refusing to continue to provide flood cover. The result is that some home owners are struggling to find affordable home insurance that is so important to them.

Insurance companies and the Government have been working together to develop a different way of dealing with flood insurance and have decided on a scheme called FLOOD RE (short for flood reinsurance) which will:

• Enable flood cover to be more affordable for households at the highest risk of flooding
• Increase the availability and the choice of insurers to customers
• Allow time for the Government, local authorities, insurers and communities to become better prepared for flooding.

How will Russell Scanlan work with Flood RE ?

Flood Re will make no difference to the way we look to
arranging your home insurance or assist you in making a claim. All insurers
will pay a levy to Flood Re and if your home is in a flood exposed area they
will apply a flood premium based on the council tax band of your home. These
premium changes are paid direct to insurer not Flood Re. We will continue to discuss claims with
insurers in the normal way.

We will continue to ensure that we provide you with the most
cost effective way of insuring your home and possessions and if you have
unfortunately been affected by flooding in the past or are in an area prone to
flooding we are confident that we can arrange cover for you at a realistic
premium with no prohibitively high excess levels.

Helping you manage your flood risk

Insurance is only part of the equation when it comes to
minimising the impact of flooding on your property and possessions.

Here are a number or resources that can be used to assist
you:

Information on flood warnings that have been issued:

England: www.gov.uk/check-if-youre-at-risk-of-flooding

Wales: www.naturalresources.wales/flooding/alerts-and-war…

Scotland:
www.floodlinescotland.org.uk

Northern Ireland: www.nidirect.gov.uk/flooding-in-your-area

Flood Risk Management advice:

Property flood risk surveys: www.abi.org.uk/insurance-and-savings/topics-and-is…

Professionals’ directory including a list of flood risk
consultants:
www.ciwem.org

A guide to flooding for property owners: www.rics.org/uk