House Insurance Woes - Any Ideas, Please?

[jet_noise]

Dear All,

apologies for the shorthand but a busy day...

New house purchase underway.
Enquiries/searches uncovered that the new house's garage flooded in 2007/the house is in a 1 in 100 year flood risk area.

Old house has (what should be) a claim for a heating oil leak from an unknown source (not ours) into our cellar in 2007 which took 18 months to sort.
The claim is incorrectly recorded as firstly two claims and secondly the first being a flood not oil contamination.

Our current insurer won't insure the new place 'coz of the flood risk and "can't" correct the error in their records.
The new house's current insurer (pay attention 007) won't cover us because of our claims history.

The only places (two after a whole morning Going to the annoyingly advertised Comparison site and the 'phone to a specialist) are either hugely expensive and with a £10k excess(!!) or won't insure for flood risk.

Does anyone know of an insurer who may offer a sensible rate in these circumstances?

regards,
Jet

[anonymous-user]

http://www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/

We use them for business, they can source cover to insure pretty much anything. I can't guarantee cheapness but they have a lot of clout so can do some legwork for you in shopping around.

[jet_noise]

Dear yb,

thanks, tried, failed!
'twas the claims history wot kills it with them.

Flood risk I can just about understand, although the 1/100 year occurrence sounds pretty low to me, but...
...our claim was so unusual (oil leak) and exacerbated due to the type of house (old, cellar) I don't see how it can make any difference to the likelihood of a claim on a different, modern property at a different location.

Looks like the house purchase is going to fail and if our sale is to continue then rented here we come. &*(k, %^**)$ks and other swearwords,

regards,
Jet

[hairyben]

If the incorrect claim history is causing you problems can you not speak to the insurance ombudsman or a solicitor? Evan the no-win no-fee brigade could be interested if ins.co. error has potential considerable consequential losses for you...

[skeeterm5]

jet_noise said:

Our current insurer won't insure the new place 'coz of the flood risk and "can't" correct the error in their records.

This is complete and utter rubbish. Ring them and ask to speak to a manager and get them to sort it out

S

[JR]

hairyben said:

If the incorrect claim history is causing you problems can you not speak to the insurance ombudsman or a solicitor?

I also think that combined with speaking to their manager this is step one.

[JR]

jet_noise said:

Flood risk I can just about understand, although the 1/100 year occurrence sounds pretty low to me, but...

The way that things have been going for the last quarter century it isn't. Remember that the 1/100 year flood may come next week, as may the 1/1000 year flood.

[jet_noise]

Dear All,

thanks (I think) for the dialogue.

skeeterm5 said:

This is complete and utter rubbish. Ring them and ask to speak to a manager and get them to sort it out

S

It sounds so simple written down, doesn't it, oops /sarcasm.
My partner was the one on the 'phone all day yesterday. Even if it were possible to correct the error, two claims rather than one makes no difference...
...and it isn't going to happen in the short timescales operating in house sale/purchase.

JR said:

The way that things have been going for the last quarter century it isn't. Remember that the 1/100 year flood may come next week, as may the 1/1000 year flood.

Ah, the joy of probabilities.

Having slept on it my feeling is that this house just isn't worth the risk. Plan A was to only be there for 5-10 years. Even if we were to fund an excessive premium and excess risk we would have difficulty selling a place with a flood report hanging over it.

Still there's only the sale of our existing place which has taken 18 months to make and a £k or two down drain

regards,
Jet

[JR]

jet_noise said:

Still there's only the sale of our existing place which has taken 18 months to make and a £k or two down drain

If only I could say that my house sales have gone smoothly. If you're going through hell then don't stop there, keep going.

(It did sound like the 'flood risk' house would have to be quite exceptional to be worth the hassle.

[Jasandjules]

jet_noise said:

Our current insurer won't insure the new place 'coz of the flood risk and "can't" correct the error in their records.

Oh yes they can, and IIRC they are obliged to do so as well. DPA requires accurate data before we start.

[shouldbworking]

Jasandjules said:

jet_noise said:

Our current insurer won't insure the new place 'coz of the flood risk and "can't" correct the error in their records.

Oh yes they can, and IIRC they are obliged to do so as well. DPA requires accurate data before we start.

This. 4th principle of the act -
Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

[ClassicMercs]

My brother recently struck lucky with the local NFU office when he bought a spot near the river in York. Never flooded before - worst stopped over the road before flood defences were put in.

This came from asking people he knew. May be worth going to see new neighbours and knocking on doors - meet and greet at the same time.

[elanfan]

As a recently retired Insurance Surveyor that worked for a major insurer that commissioned their own flood mapping and whose job was to look at flood risk I'd stay well clear of the 1 in 100 year property. We had instances of properties flooding 4 times in 10 years where the risk was 1 in 100.

If you are unlucky and the flood hits you and you get 2 feet of water through your property you will be lucky to move in again in after 12 months and will spend that time living in a caravan on your driveway. The property will then become virtually unsaleable and you'll be stuck there.

With the claims issue - if the insurer cannot change their system to accurately reflect your claims history they are blighting your chances of getting insurance that truely reflects the risk (as insurers exchange data thesedays). I should point this out to them - it is akin to have an incorrect credit score with Expedia or similar - it is not right and they should do their utmost to correct the situation. The least they could do would be to issue a letter correctly stating your claims history and confirming their electronic records are incorrect.

[Rude-boy]

OP - Listen to elanfan on this.

What he has said is bang on.

Especially the changing the records thing. They are taking you for a mug there, and forget about calling them (especially since time no long appears of the essence) write to them. Then chase that up by phone and keep a record of names, times and dates.

[elanfan]

RB - Ta muchly.

Just to add - better still get an email address of the person dealing that way a full record can be kept easily.

[JR]

elanfan said:

As a recently retired Insurance Surveyor that worked for a major insurer that commissioned their own flood mapping and whose job was to look at flood risk I'd stay well clear of the 1 in 100 year property. We had instances of properties flooding 4 times in 10 years where the risk was 1 in 100.

As an aside I think that there's a lot of mis-understanding about the 1 in ... numbers. They're likely to be correct over a timespan of 1,000 or 2,000 years. But over the shorter term the above is likely to happen to someone and there will be a counter balance that someone else will never suffer any flooding. A 1 in 100 year risk tells you that a flood is more likely that a 1 in 500 or 1,000 year flood but remember that any of them could happen next week and the week after as well. Much better IMO to look at what the risk actually is and why. For example why on earth houses are now built on flood plains staggers me.

[jet_noise]

Dear All,

thanks for the advice but the issue is now moot - we've pulled out of the property, the flood risk being by far the largest stopper for insurers,

regards,
Jet