Homeowners in flood risk areas face home insurance problems

Fri, 25 Jun 2010

Homeowners that live in a flood risk area and know it, yet fail to disclose the fact when looking for home insurance could face having any subsequent flood-related claim being disregarded.

Further, if they live in the wrong postcode area, obtaining a home insurance quote in the first instance could also be problematic for homeowners. The consumer magazine Which? has found that there is great variance in the way different home insurers assess flood risk .

Some insurers, including LV= and Northern Rock, assess at postcode level, with reference to claims history and the Environment Agency's flood data maps. Sarah Adams from Ordnance Survey is critical of this method of assessing risk: "Postcodes are not accurate enough as they typically cover several addresses. They would not take into account whether you live at the top or bottom of a hill."

Other insurers, such as Aviva and Stroud and Swindon Building Society, use sophisticated mapping systems, which enable them to assess an individual property's flood risk.
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