Houses In Flood Plains
To insure a house which you have purchased in a flood plain area might cause a problem when it is time to renew. Throughout the years alot of people have purchased houses in flood plain areas of the UK. Many years have bypast with no problems with floods.
Due to the fact that the UK in the past had not suffered from a lot of flooding in the past, when the floods arrived in the summer of 2007, various UK resisdents were caught short. It was suggested that £3 billion was lost to the insurers with all the claims. There were not so many claims in Milton Keynes but other areas were hit hard with lots of damage. The problem now comes when people come to renew their home insurance. There should be no problem with the existing company that you are with as the ABI has agreed that their members will still carry on insuring their current clients providing the government puts more money into new and improved flood defences. The trouble is they can easily increase the premiums and when you go to shop around for another quote you will probably find that either other companies do not want to insure the house, or that the premiums will be a whole lot higher than someone who does not have a property in a flood plain area.
Wth the number of two million homes or more in a flood risk area the insurance companies are a little worried. It appears that is 10% of the houses in the UK. Also around 400,000 homes are in a very high risk area which equals to 1 in 75 chance of flooding.
So what can be done. Well if you already possess a property within a flood plain area then you may have to put up with the high premiums. If you sell your home, the new owners of your property would have to take on your insurance company.
If buying a place now, it would be advisable not to buy one in a flood plain area. You can check if you are in a flood plain area by getting a detailed survey carried out. To find out if the house lies in a flood plain area you can also check yourself, by searching on the Environment Agency's website before you go too far ahead with the purchase. If you are searching for long term investment this could be a safe thing to do.








