Floods And Home Insurance

The recent severe weather has brought misery to many people as a result of unprecedented levels of flooding. The floods have highlighted that for many people flooding is fast becoming a fact of life with more than 2 million homes now at risk from coastal or inland flooding.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates that some 27,500 homes and 7,000 businesses were affected by the floods and the total cost of claims is thought to be 1.5 billion pounds. The clean up is now well underway although there have been some media reports that Insurance Companies have been dragging their feet and slow in processing claims.
The Government met the ABI on 10th July 2007 Following the meeting Stephen Haddrill, ABI Director General said "Insurers are doing all that they can to deal with the impact of the floods, including getting people re-housed in temporary accommodation and making provision for early payments to help deal with immediate hardship. Where cover has been taken out against business interruption through flooding insurers are helping those businesses to keep trading."
The floods have highlighted just how important it is to have the right building and contents insurance cover in place. Tragically many households had no insurance in place at all, some estimates put people holding no home insurance as high as 25 percent.
Home insurance is normally separated into two types of cover, buildings insurance - this covers the structure of your home and fixtures and fittings, and contents insurance - which covers all furniture and personal possessions, basically everything you'd pack up and take with you if you moved.
You can have both types of cover combined into one policy through one insurer or insure your buildings and contents separately though two different insurers. Cover will normally protect building and contents against the major risks of fire, storm damage, flood damage and theft, policies may also cover many additional risks as well.
Home Insurance quotes are rated on many factors including post code, occupation, type of property, and age of property. Insurers will often require adequate security including window locks and door locks. Insurers will often offer discounts for example for being a member of a neighbourhood watch scheme or having an intruder alarm fitted.
Nowadays there are many methods to obtain home insurance, often it is set up at the time of house purchase where the mortgage lender will insist that building insurance is in place before they will lend the money. Alternatively people may use an insurance broker, high Street bank / Building Society or you can get a home insurance quote on line via the internet.