Flood Insurance - Fairweather Insurances Responds.

It is almost impossible to title a flood insurance article without making a pun. Flood Claims on the Rise, Turning the Tide on Flood Insurance etcetera. Even my less than interesting title above carries a little rye smile given the name of our firm.

We write a lot about Flood cover but I make no apology for that. It is very much a hot topic and has been for some time now.

Given the rise of flooding over the last decade and the huge losses incurred by Insurers it is not surprising that it is often difficult to find appropriate cover. Many direct markets simply don't have the time, capacity or inclination to investigate specifics or mitigating circumstances and you might be faced with a 'computer says no' situation.

Similarly many of the insurers we deal with have invested in very sophisticated flood mapping and so whilst you may not have suffered any flood issues to date the flood mapping predicts the likelihood of flood from burst rivers, standing water, saturated ground etcetera. It isn't just your property's proximity to water that insurers rely upon. You might recall a few years ago when the Thames burst it's banks in the Chertsey area and houses half a mile away from the river experienced flooding. A rise in the local water table, the river bursting and the amount of rainfall meant the water simply had nowhere to go. Now more postcodes are considered 'at risk' because of these factors.

The environment agency will have a wealth of information about the risk of flood in your area but insurers go beyond this using their own experiences in predicting the risk moving forward. Although we do not have access to the mapping tools we do deal with a wide range of insurers every day and with a range of products and attitudes to flood and so we are best placed to target those providers we know with some flexibility.

In addition we have engaged and negotiated with insurers who have agreed to take a view on Flood cover when presented with some supporting evidence. Accordingly if you are being told by your existing provider that they will not cover you or they are applying terms I'd encourage you to contact us as this client did -

"As my property is situated in-between a river and a canal, I was finding it difficult to find an insurance company willing to cover me. Fairweather were able to act quickly and obtain me flood insurance within 24 hours at an excellent price"

We look forward to hearing from you.

Alistair

The Wise Man Builds His House....

It will not have escaped your notice that over the last couple of years it's got a bit wetter around these parts and many insurers have tightened their belts where the peril of flood is concerned. This is not without reason as floods have resulted in huge losses for insurers. Often though we are finding that many homes and businesses are being tarnished by the same postcode brush and penalised for the location of their house based on what might be happening at the end of the road.

The problem does not just stop with flood but other perils or negative underwriting factors. If for example one end of the street is situated on a cliff edge or next to a railway embankment then many providers will adopt the same attitude to your property which might be some distance away (but share the same postcode) as that which is more at risk.

We have several ways of dealing with this. We, as a broker can use our relationships with underwriters to discuss the issues and the positive factors pertaining to your property in order to obtain an agreeable rate. We also have a facility to provide cover for exactly this kind of risk so using our local knowledge and / or any evidence you are able to provide there should be no reason for you to be penalised for your neighbour his fishing lake half a mile down the road.

If you are in any doubt whether the deal you are getting on-line is reflective of YOUR risk and not your neighbours then you NEED to get in touch with US. For all kinds of property insurance of a personal or commercial nature including property under renovation please call us on 01753 881566.

Covering Bases and Turning Stones - Talking Fraud

One of the best ways to ascertain whether you need a certain cover or not is to look at a ‘real-life’ claims scenario and apply it to your business… could this happen? If the answer is yes then the next question must be ‘what is the maximum possible loss?’. Once you have worked that out then ask yourself whether you could swallow that without any disturbance to your business. Today’s example (a true story) reads as follows…

An employee is dealing with some supplier invoicing and has some correspondence from a regular supplier notifying of a change of bank details. The letter is on the same headed paper as they have always received and even has a number to call to verify the authenticity (although the number takes you through to the fraudster). Changes to the bank details are made and over the subsequent weeks three payments are released totalling close to £400,000. Discovery of the fraud occurred when the genuine supplier contacted the firm stating that they had not made any payments. The money was never recovered.

This sort of fraud is increasingly common, particularly as in the world of email and electronic paperwork a company logo, names and even signatures are readily available to fraudsters. Seemingly a legitimate piece of post can result in a significant loss. Theft by deception is not generally an insured peril and in fact on most policies (including your motor policy) theft by deception is specifically excluded. In addition the money in your bank account is not insured under your commercial policy. So what is the solution? Well we are pleased to confirm that this scenario, amongst others, can be insured under a crime policy. Other covers available under a crime policy include

·         Internal Crime (fraud / dishonesty of employees)

·         External Crime (forgery, counterfeiting etcetera as in the scenario above)

·         Cheque Fraud (a customer altering a cheque and cashing for a higher amount)

·         Computer Fraud (stealing monies, intellectual or physical property through cyber means – hacking in and getting goods delivered to a different location for example)

·         Transfer Fraud (the fraudulent transfer of money)

·         Corporate Card Fraud (where corporate cards are stolen and used fraudulently

There are other extensions available but the covers below are the key inclusions. Although if we go forward we will need a proposal form it is possible to get an indication of the cost with the following details

·         Name

·         Trade

·         Company Locations

·         Turnover and Wage-Roll

·         Number of Staff

·         Loss History Relevant to the Cover

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you want to talk about this cover further.

Yours

Alistair