Nothing could be worse than coming back from a well earned holiday to find that your home has been flooded. In 2007, large areas of Gloucestershire and West Oxfordshire, as well as Yorkshire – particularly Hull – experienced the worst floods in recent memory. Sally and Hugh Laing got such a phone call while on the beach in the Caribbean, telling them that their home had been flooded and that they had probably better come back to sort it out.
Yet they really weren't prepared for what they saw. For Mrs Laing it was just heart breaking. “We'd spent the last 10 years renovating Manor Cottage, and put all our spare hours and cash into it. When we bought it, it was like a dream come true, as we'd both wanted to escape the London rat race and work from home. Everything was under water, to a depth of about 1 foot in all the downstairs rooms. All the things you take for granted were ruined – domestic appliances, sofas, bookcases, even the Aga. It had suffered badly and did not work again. More critically for us, as home workers, was the office – both computers were flooded and we lost a great deal of client data as well as paper files relating to our respective enterprises.”
After recovering from the initial shock, they were relieved to find that they were covered for flood damage as they had taken out a good quality home insurance policy. Working with the insurer, they set about recovering from all the damage, clearing all their ruined fixtures and fittings out before beginning the long process of rebuilding their dream home. “The insurance company could not have been more helpful,” said Mrs Laing. “They paid for us to live in temporary accommodation while we sorted ourselves out and made the place habitable again, which was a great relief, as it could have been very costly otherwise.”
Mr and Mrs Laing were lucky. Hundreds of similar people did not have adequate insurance cover in place, if at all – it is all too easy to let your policy lapse without thinking, and you must always be careful to ensure it is up to date, reflects the true value of possessions and your home, and is of sufficient quality to cover you for such events. Understandably, insurance premiums are rising, particularly for those living in areas at risk of flooding, but by working with your insurer it is actually possible to reduce your premiums – taking practical measures such as replacing old wooden floors with modern concrete ones, for example.
For buildings insurance quotes, try Co-Operative Insurance.