Weathering the heat and floods

By Ed Monk


THERE won't have been many complaints about the heat wave seen this summer  but could the record temperatures also signal a higher threat of flood and storm damage to your home?


Forecasters say that hot, dry summers followed by violent storms in the winter will be the pattern as global warming takes hold, meaning more of us will need to call on our home insurance to bail us out when the rainy day comes.

The hot weather also brings the risk of subsidence. Long, dry spells can make the earth beneath buildings crumble, leaving houses unsupported. Subsidence is a particular problem in the South East, where the underlying clay soil becomes brittle after periods of drought.

And to make matter worse, the Association of British Insurers has warned that 2m homes in the UK are now at risk of flood. The number of homes at high risk has jumped from 220,000 in 2002 to 570,000 today. The increased danger has meant that insurers will now profile areas to establish how vulnerable they are to floods, and can even rate individual houses for their flood risk.

Malcolm Tarling of the ABI said: 'The climatologists tell us that the flood risk is only going to increase with the changing weather patterns. Summers will be warmer and dryer, and winter will be warmer and wetter.'

You can see how likely it is that your house will flood by searching for your area at

Those living in high-risk flood areas should still be able to get insured. An agreement struck between insurers and government last year means that people in these areas will be able to get covered as long as government delivers extra money to bolster river and coastal flood defences. The government has also pledged to build fewer houses on flood plains.

Arthur Philp, underwriting policy manager for Norwich Union, said: 'Since the severe floods in the late 1990s, insurers have added an extra cost to insure houses in areas at higher risk. There really aren't many areas that can't be effected be floods from rivers or the coast.'

However, different insurers will treat flood damage differently, so it is worth checking policies carefully. Some will not pay out for rising groundwater  flooding that occurs because the ground is saturated by a nearby river. This can be a particular problem for people living in areas built on chalk, or those protected by artificial flood defences.

Most household policies will cover damage to garages and sheds, but insurers may require a separate policy to cover damage to gardens. Most car insurance polices will protect against flood damage.

Insurers may exclude claims for storm damage if winds are not severe enough. Some insurers will measure wind speeds and will only pay out when winds reach 55mph, or 10 on the Beaufort scale.