Flood Insurance

Flood insurance is a specific product under the umbrella of insurance and it covers - as the name suggests - losses that occur due to flooding. In many cases, this form of protection (flood insurance) is part of the buildings and contents insurance, and if a property is flooded then the building insurance covers the cost, typically, of repairing and restoring the property and affected fixtures and fittings, and some other associated costs.

There are various risk factors involved with assessing flood insurance, notably of course whether the property lies on the flood plain of a river or other major body of water, how low lying the land is, how susceptible to flooding the area is and how many times it has flooded in recent history, and more besides.

When buying a house in the UK usually a flood check will be done on the property when you buy it and you will be told whether the risk of the property flooding is high or low and so forth. Of course if the risk of flooding is perceived to be very high, then you can struggle to get insurance at all.

Typically those who live in flood risk areas will be required to do as much as they can to flood-proof their homes when taking out insurance, or else they could face extremely high premiums and excesses, or may be refused cover.

It is estimated, according to government figures, that there are 5.2million properties that are at risk of flooding in England, with 1.4 million being at risk from rivers or the sea, 2.8m from surface water and 1m at risk from both.

If you are looking for information on obtaining flood insurance in a high risk area, then you might find this document on the www.gov.uk website a useful read.

Related Articles...

Reinsurance The concept of 'reinsurance' is quite an interesting one. It comes down to the same sort of logic as 'who will guard the guards?' - in this case who will insure the insurers. The answer is, other... Vehicle Insurance Vehicle insurance is the category of insurance products that cover, surprisingly enough, vehicles. These can be any sort of vehicle that you can think of, with of course the most common product... Home Insurance Home insurance is one of the most common types of insurance product, and anyone who has a home will be familiar with it. Home insurance is usually contrasted with contents insurance, which is a... Bicycle Insurance Bicycle insurance, as with all insurance products, gives you a way to deal with the risk of having something happen to your bicycle - depending on the product you choose - and therefore having the... Van Insurance Most people know about car insurance, but what about van insurance? Clearly if you drive a van then you need to know about van insurance. There are various different types of van insurance which... Crop Insurance There are two main types of crop yield insurance available, which come under the category of types of agricultural insurance product. It is self-explanatory what crop insurance guards against -... Types of Car Insurance There are various different types of car insurance product that are available in the UK. The minimum level of cover that is available to meet legal requirements is a product called third party... Travel Insurance One of the most common forms of insurance product is travel insurance. Wherever there is travel involved, there is invariably risk, and infact a range of risks, and therefore an insurance product... Contents Insurance Contents insurance is a type of insurance product that covers the items that you have - the contents - of your home. There are a range of different providers of contents insurance out there on... Prize Indemnity Insurance Prize indemnity insurance is a purchase that would be considered by someone offering a large prize and thus could stand to lose a considerable sum of money. This form of insurance would mean that...