How will you feel when....

Annoyed, particularly as when we bought this property we purposely looked at the EA flood maps to make sure we were not in a floodwarning area.

Resigned. What's new?

agreed mollie

Not sure how I feel about the insurance, though I understand your point, ^durhamjen*; the Sat Nav in Theseus' car has a section in which you can check height above sea level. He generally fiddles with it when he's getting bored. However, when we were looking for houses down here (North Devon) there were one or two, very near the sea, that seemed to be not a sensible buy! So yes, common sense is a factor.

However there are people in the flooded areas who have been there for generations. There was one elderly man in "The Times" this week, whose family have farmed on the Somerset Levels since the 16th century, and he was scathing about incomers who complained about flooding. There were the "Somerset islands" where the original inhabitants set up homes and farms, on slightly high ground, and weathered the floods. What about them?

Same as I'll feel when the price of meat, milk, vegetables, bread and everything else goes up due to the flooding. Fed up and hard up!

Yes, Ariadne, should have qualified it. The EA maps have been available for at least 8 years, and talk about climate change for a lot longer. Anyone who bought a house down by a river in the last 15 years is pretty inconsiderate and careless.
What surprised me when the cameras were in Marlow, etc., was the number of properties that still had boats tied up outside them. Second homes, do you think. I think if I had a motor boat and my house was in danger of flooding, the first thing I would do was load up the boat to get away if necessary.

I'll feel better than I did when my insurance went up because I live in the adjacent postcode to the most burgalled area in England.

Our insurance is astronomical because we live in a high flood risk area between two rivers. The 1000 acres of farmland around us didn't even flood in 1947 or 1953 but our postcode says it floods!!!!!

I'd feel okay if it went down following the years when there were no floods, gales, heavy snow falls or other major disasters.

I do not live near a river, only a few little streams pass through our village. When we bought the house 20 years ago it never occurred to us to think of checking flood risk. The EA maps were not available and the worries in the early/mid 1990s were drought not floods. We did later discovered it flooded in 1947, and where didn't flood then, and before that in 1895, so not prone to flooding, just every 50 years or so.

The village flooded in 2007, and about 40 houses were affected, although not ours, we all shrugged it off as the 50 year flood in line with the previous ones, but it flooded last week, although, thankfully only 5 - 10 houses were affected. The EA maps show our house is not liable to flood either from ground water or one of the village streams overflowing.

However this hasn't stopped the insurers putting us in the 'at risk' group and we only have flood cover if we remain with our current insurer, if we leave no other insurer will give us flood cover. The result is that over the last 5 years our insurance premium has almost doubled, because we are a captive market. We are seriously thinking of moving to another insurer and dropping the flood cover. After all we are not actually in the flood zone.

I pay up and don't grumble about the cost of house insurance. I accept premiums are likely to increase given the recent floods/gales/storm and pestilence. Many years ago we had a large claim due to a small fire, caused probably by carelessness. We were out of our home for months, the insurance company were as good as could be expected, though we were definitely out of pocket, and overdrawn by the conclusion of the claim. I feel very fortunate not to live in an area prone to flooding.

All insurance is legalised thievery. Rob us all blind and then find some reason why "It's not covered in your policy".
I am a little bitter!

Flickety, when we lived in York, the council drew up plans for a new headquarters at Hungate. The area where they were going to build was in the 1 in a 100 years floodrisk area. A lot of the residents pointed out to them that there had been four floods in that area in ten years, so they really ought to change their floodrisk assessment.
When we left York they were building flats there, with carparking in the basement! The council offices were built somewhere else.

the thing is - the premiums for those who were flooded whether by river or sea will find it hard to get insurance and face much increased premiums so even though the rest of us will pay more - they will have to pay much more as well. Have often felt that insurance should be on a pick and mix basis - i.e. if you are never likely to flood because you live on a hill - exclude that from your insurance
I live in a grade 2 listed cottage - common or garden black and white half-timbered type but because of that I have difficulty finding insurance anyway and it also affects my contents insurance as well. The comparison web sites usually list only 1 or 2 companies who will cover me.
it is my choice to live in a listed cottage (although I do resent the fact that Herefordshire seemed to list every property over 200 years old even if down a muddy track and not seen by anyone other than the postman and a few walkers) so I pay the higher insurance demanded. I assume if you are a higher risk for whatever reason - high crime, flooding, coastal erosion, listing - you pay up or risk not being covered.

I don't see that a pick and mix insurance approach would improve things. We pay insurance in the hope we'll never need it. When disaster strikes, whether it's a car accident, or floods/fire etc to our homes, we surely thank our lucky stars we managed to afford the policies. Reading the fine print, and making sure the things you need covered, are covered is important as well.

I resent paying extra insurance to cover anyone who bought their house in a flood area in the last few years but am happy to pay extra towards the cost of those who bought their homes without any information to warn them they might be flooded. The point of insurance is that we all pay in to one big pot which provides for those who meet misfortune.

Our experience on insurance companies over the years has only been good.

Probably as annoyed as I feel about high motor insurance aggravated by plonkers on the roads and illegal "crash for cash" claims. [resigned] emoticon

We need to argue very strongly for better flood defense that is the only thing that will keep the insurance companies happy, and perhaps those that have been flooded will be able to obtain insurance for their homes as they will have difficulty otherwise.

What's the point in getting annoyed about it when it's all out of our hands?
You could always choose not to insure your property if you want to save money.

some people won't have a choice if the government doesn't stump up the cash to defend their house.

mollie65, the criteria for listing is age, and there are national criteria, which is, essentially that all property over 200 years old should be listed. Being off the beaten track doesn't make any difference.

The main house insurers base their rates etc on brick houses with tiled/slate roofs built in towns or villages in the last 100 years and are really only interested in that type of property. If you own a listed property, which we do too, you need to go to an insurance broker who can contact insurance companies specialising in this market. Until recent floods in our village, which didn't affect our house, this was cheaper and better than going to any of the standard house insurers or comparison sites. There is also an organisation called the Listed Properties Owner's Club (https://lpoc.co.uk/) who also offer specialist insurance at good rates.

Iam64 and Nonnie I agree with your postings.We must read the policy properly and shop around.Bought this house 5 years ago and floods were the big thing we were concerned about, so bought the safest one that we could. I know not all have this luxury if they have been in a house for a long time, but maybe think of selling? Because, although moving house does cost a lot more than the insurance, you then have the peace of mind knowing that you won't flood.A lot of houses in Berkshire on the river, are million and multi million pound houses that wealthy people buy on the river, with moorings for their boat; can't feel sorry for these people.

I think anybody who bought a house with moorings or even a nice riverside view cannot expect others to subsidise their insurance, however long ago they bought the house. My father's family live in Reading, but all up hills, I have discovered.

flicketyB - I do realise it is nice and laudable to live in a listed building - but when I lived in Shropshire in a house that was at least 200 years old - it was not listed so maybe some authorities use a bit more common sense when applying the criteria.
be that as it may thank you for the link and I did manage to find insurance for house and contents for about £215 pa with a hefty excess (I work on the basis that if a small thing goes wrong I would pay to get it fixed rather than risk the no-claims discount.
even if a house is not listed I would never go for plastic windows and the rest - I like character in my house even if the wooden windows are a mite draughty at the moment