January 2016

Protect Your Property Against Flood Damage

Flood Re is here to protect your home, and insurance premium, this winter. 

The press has been flooded with images recently of properties under water - over 16,000 homes have been flooded in the last three months, with the Association of British Insurers estimating the cost of damage at over £1.3 billion. Almost five million properties in England are at risk of flooding and the government has estimated that the annual cost of damage caused to these properties by flooding could double, from £1.2 billion in 2012 to over £2 billion in 2025.

Flood Re

For homeowners facing a continuous threat of flooding, the government has launched a scheme called Flood Re. The idea behind this scheme is to ensure that domestic property insurance is widely available and affordable for homes at risk of flooding, without placing excessive costs on other policyholders or taxpayers.

The scheme works by allowing the insurer to cede the flood risk part of a policy covering a home with a history of flooding on to Flood Re, a flood re-insurance vehicle, which will be funded by a levy on all insurers, variable according to their market share. This levy has been set at £180 million per annum for the first five years – equivalent to around £10.50 for every household in the UK with both buildings and contents insurance.

For more information on Flood Re and how this might affect your insurance premium, please contact the Abaco Team who will be happy to provide you with assistance.

The Abaco Team