‘Many Houses Flooded In Pontypridd Are Uninsured’

This was the broadcast over the radio as I travelled to work this morning. With storm Ciara and her partner in crime, Dennis, coming to the end of their ‘rain’ of tyranny across the UK, many of us have weathered the storm but some have been left knee-deep in floodwater. With more weather warnings on the way and your house being the biggest investment of your life, can you afford to pay for the repair of damages if a freak weather front should occur? The answer for most people is no.

So, what should you check is covered on your Insurance policy?

Buildings Sum Insured

Ensure that your total sum insured is sufficient to cover your property if it’s completely damaged. The buildings sum insured is the maximum amount of money that your insurer is willing to pay to rebuild your property if it were to be destroyed or damaged in its entirety.

Contents Sum Insured

Check that your total sum insured for contents is a reflection of the total cost of all contents in your property. Make sure to check what is excluded from cover and any contents that are of significant value (individually valued over £1,000) are itemised. The contents sum insured is the maximum amount of money that your insurer is willing to pay to restore your contents if they were to be destroyed or damaged.

Valuables Limit

When is the best time to realise you’re not covered? Well, It’s definitely not when your television is floating in the centre of the living room! Your valuables are your most prized and most expensive possessions, so what would happen if they weren’t protected? These items can quickly rack up to a very unsightly bill, so, it’s important to check that your valuable limit encompasses the total sum of your valuables.

Flooding Endorsements

Does your policy have any endorsements that exclude cover for flooding? Now, this is not overly common but it is good to double-check, especially if your property is within a flood-risk postcode. If you’re a landlord this is more common for buy-to-let insurance so make a note down of your cover limits in the event of a flood and keep them handy. When reading the endorsements, check for an increased excess in the event of a flood as this can end up costing you a good few bob before the repairs have been completed.

So how does Source help combat these problems?

In-depth flooding and subsidence questions

Our platform is designed to generate the most comprehensive and tailored quotation possible. The redesigned statement based question set makes it simpler to do a standard quotation but should the client answer any statement with a ‘no’ the expanded question set then allows for a tailored quote to meet a non-standard need. This tailored question set then enables the client to access a range of insurers where other providers may have declined on that risk.

Underwriting Team

This talented team is always on hand should your quotation be specifically challenging. Our in-house underwriting team will handle the quotation on your behalf, going directly to the insurer in an attempt to meet your needs. With the ability to use off-panel insurers, we can cover a vast range of non-standard risks meaning that we can even potentially cover those with trickier postcodes.

Service

In the event of a claim, we are here to help guide you through the process. Although we don’t process the claim (as that is specific to each insurer) there are some helpful steps we can take to remove some of the stress from the situation.

We will:

• Provide the communication link between you and your insurer.
• Schedule calls with your insurer for you.
• Send reminders to your insurer to keep your claim on track.
•    Be your helping hand as you make your way through your claim.

Our top tip

Duct Tape! In the event of a flood duct tape over all your electrical plug points. This will minimise the damage to your electrics, should the floodwater enter your property.