Home Insurance

FloodRe

The Government set up FloodRe to make home insurance more affordable. If you have a high risk of flooding, your insurer can pass the flood risk element of your policy to FloodRe. FloodRe keeps the cost of flood insurance low by spreading the risk across all suppliers. Click here to check the eligibility criteria for FloodRe and here to find which home insurers offer flood insurance through FloodRe. FloodRe says it will cover damage to homes caused by groundwater flooding but you should check with your insurer.   

If your property has been flooded, insurers often pay to replace ‘like with like.’ But after a flood, it makes a lot of sense to ‘build back better’ so that your property will not be damaged in future floods. You may have to pay to make your home more flood resilient, but it is worth asking if your insurer will cover ‘build back better’ in your policy. Click here for the list of insurance providers that currently provide the Build Back Better option.

So if you are looking for a new home insurance policy the questions you might like to ask your insurer when buying:

• Are you part of the Flood Re scheme? If yes, would my policy be ceded to the scheme? (This tells you the flood part of the premium is fixed according to council tax banding)
• Are you signed up to offer Build Back Better? If yes, should I experience a flood, what are the criteria that would have to be true in order for me to benefit from this additional premium?

When taking out home insurance, local residents have been asked the following questions by the insurance company - SOFLAG provides responses to these questions that you might want to use if asked. These are based on knowledge of experts based in the area:

• Are groundwater levels rising beneath your house? Response: SOFLAG can confidently say that there is no long term rise in groundwater levels in South Oxford. This is based on groundwater levels measured in the area over the past 20 years. Groundwater levels are controlled by river levels and there is no evidence either that these have risen over the past several decades.
• Have you as the homeowner received Flood Warnings from the Environment Agency? Response: properties within the Oxford floodplain have received over 12 flood warnings since 2006, when the Environment Agency set up their warning system. These warnings initially covered every property in the whole of Oxford valley from Eynsham down to Sandford, and then, from 2012, all properties in the southern part of the valley. These warnings are not specific to any single property.

The government plans to keep FloodRe in place until 2039. Check the FloodRe website to find out more. The FloodRe web site also includes information on Flood Resilient Gardens and Home Flood Defences, and the long term flood risk of the area that you live in.