Qualifying policies which may be ceded to Flood Re

Properties will be eligible only if they meet all of the following criteria:

  1. They are covered by an insurance contract which is held in the name of, or on trust for, one or more individuals or by the personal representative of an individual;
  2. The holder of the policy, or their immediate family, must live in the property for some or all of the time (whether or not with others) or the property must be unoccupied;
  3. They have a domestic Council Tax band A to H (or equivalent);
  4. They are used for private, residential purposes;
  5. They are a single residential unit or a building comprising of two or three residential units;
  6. They are insured on an individual basis or have an individual premium;
  7. They were built before 1st January 2009 (if a home is built before 1stJanuary 2009 but then demolished and rebuilt, the new home is still eligible); and
  8. They are located within the UK comprising England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (excluding the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands)

We expect that the following properties will be eligible for buildings or combined cover provided they also meet the criteria 1-8 above:

  1. Bed and breakfast premises paying Council Tax and insured under a home insurance contract;
  2. Farmhouse dwellings and cottages. Where farmhouse dwellings are included in a commercial line policy, provided the insurer can split out the dwelling element (which meets the criteria 1-8 (inclusive) above), that part of the risk can be ceded to Flood Re;
  3. Holiday/Second Homes;
  4. Properties occupied by home workers;
  5. Individual leaseholders protecting their own property/flat;
  6. Leasehold blocks if they contain 3 units or fewer and the freeholder(s) lives in one of the units to be insured;
  7. Single unit leasehold properties where the leaseholder insures the structure of the property
  8. Residential ‘buy to let’ properties
  9. Static Caravans/homes if in personal ownership;

Flood Re will also cover a tenant’s / individual’s contents in rented or leasehold properties even where the buildings risk would not be eligible  (such as in large blocks of flats) provided the policy and the property it relates to fulfil the criteria 1-8 above.

Properties which we would not expect to fulfil the eligibility criteria for buildings or combined cover include:

  1. Bed and breakfast premises paying business rates;
  2. Blocks of more than three residential flats;
  3. Company houses/flats;
  4. Properties covered by contingent buildings policies (e.g. held by banks);
  5. Farm outbuildings;
  6. Properties used by freeholders/leaseholders in deriving commercial income insuring blocks/large numbers of properties in a portfolio;
  7. Housing association’s residential properties;
  8. Multi-use properties under commercial or private ownership;
  9. Residential ‘buy to let’ (which do not meet the criteria 1-8 (inclusive) above);
  10. Social housing properties; (eligible for Contents cover but not eligible for Buildings cover);
  11. Static caravan site owners (for commercial gain).