Monday 27 January 2014

Floods and flood in rented property

We are nearly at the end of January and the various reports about flooding in Britain and on the other side of the channel are not drying up.

On Friday The Riviera Times that covers part of the south of France and Monaco reported that  devastating floods had washed out the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur,

"In Nice, a total of 220mm fell between 9am on the 16th January and midnight on the 20th January, nearly three times the average 74mm for the whole month. La Londe recorded more than 200mm of rain - a two month average. Floods in Roquebrune came close to the levels recorded in 2011, surpassing that of 2008."

The area around Menton was one of the worst affected by landslides, and the city has estimated the cost of damage to public infrastructure at 4.5 million euros, while Nice Metropolis made a first estimate of six million euros. The clean-up bill in the Var is even more significant where specifically Hyères, La Londe, Le Lavandou and Pierrefeu. In La Londe, which has a population of 10,000, no less than 600 homes were damaged in the floods. " More on this here

On Saturday the latest edition of "Landlord & Buy-to-Let" magazine arrived in the post. It's cover had a photo of what looks like a house sinking in the sea. Moving onto the relevant article there were two headlines - " Government flood insurance plans leave landlords high and dry" and Boston letting agent battles recent flooding"

The lady from Belvoir Lettings in Lincolnshire has had first hand experience of the recent flood problems.Donna Burrell reports that her company had several rental homes that were flooded. She end her story saying that "Specialist insurance is vitally important and I hope more people will consider taking this out to get peace of mind and ensure that their families are taken care of in the case of an emergency".

Lincolnshire based HomeLet Landlord and Tenant insurance were featured on this blog back in March 2012 "Flood Risk Warning from HomeLet Landlord and Tenant Insurance" 

Going back to the Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine the report was saying that Ministers' plans to ensure flood insurance is widely available will not extend to private rented accommodation which will leave landlords and tenants in flood affected areas vulnerable.

The article then goes on to quote the RLA - Residential Landlords Association which is seeking urgent clarification from the Government on this issue.

On Friday on their website they posted an article "The Residential Landlords’ Association (RLA) has joined voices with the British Property Federation (BPF) and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) to voice concerns that exclusions recently identified in the types of property to be covered by the Government’s Flood Re proposals will leave significant numbers of homes without the access to affordable flood insurance that had been expected" Article Here

At the end of the day there is no getting away from flooding problems and each year it is getting worse.

There are a selection of insurance companies advertising on the jml-insurance website who offer specialist flood insurance property insurance products - TR Youngs / Allstyles Insurance, Rentguard Find out more Here 

If you have a property in a location like the south of France for example and are not too fluent in French and need your insurance written in English and to be able to talk through your concerns with an English speaking person then take a look at insurance provided by Andrew Copeland International, Intasure Insurance or Staysure Insurance. Find out more Here 

Somehow this won't be the last time that flooding is going to be mentioned on this blog this winter.

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