Has anyone any pointers in the search for home insurance (buildings and contents) with decent bike cover that will cover a property in a flood risk area that has flooded ‘recently’ (although no claims were made).

PedalCover can’t do it sadly as their bike cover sounds fantastic… Anyone else I should try please?

Thanks,

Chris.

Speak to John Lewis specialist insurance department. We use them (though not in a flood zone so may not be applicable), but they seem to be able to handle quite complex quotes without too much hassle.

Specialist, rather than thier bulk standard

brdaford & bingley. got flooded 10 years ago leading to an £85K claim and property is in a flood risk zone according to environment agency flood mapping. I also had £6K of bike therft claims following a burglary 4 years ago. serious increase in premium post flood, gradually got these down to £90 pcm and went back up post theft. moved to B&B last year where I now pay £35 a month. that includes a named bike as a single article limit of £5.5K for a very small additional premium (few pound per month included in the £35).

Thanks guys.

John Lewis seem to have got the wrong end of the stick with Flood:Re – I’m hoping to talk some sense into them when they call me back today.

Bradord & Bingley seemed promising at first (asked about flooding and bikes upfront as per usual and he says that’s fine… 15 minutes of questions later he asks about bikes, we add one bike, fine, add the second, “ah I’m sorry that’s taken us over the amount our underwriters will cover” ffs!) Seems they have a 5k limit on the combined replacement values for bikes so depending what bikes you have you may want to check your cover Sofaboy!?

Does anyone else have any suggestions please?

Cheers,

Chris.

We got JL this year. careful with the bikes cos after a certain value think it is over 1500K you have to get the bikes signed off and your premium will increase but they do cover the bikes away from home etc and also if you crash them.

NO idea about their flood cover though.

No it seems that with more than one specialised requirement at once I’m essentially screwed. How dare I ride bikes and be affected by natural disaster!

JL Specialist insist that their interpretation of what constitutes a flood is correct and that 3 foot of water in my kitchen doesn’t count despite the Flood:Re regulations and Financial Ombudsman saying otherwise. Even with flood risk excluded their quote was still huge (because we’re in a flood-prone area!!!). Insurers are not my favourite people right now.

JL Specialist insist that their interpretation of what constitutes a flood is correct and that 3 foot of water in my kitchen doesn’t count despite the Flood:Re regulations and Financial Ombudsman saying otherwise.

I’m always intrigued by stuff like this – what is their definition? I’m gonna guess at groundwater for now, but Young v Sun Alliance is circling at the back of my mind.

Yeah it’s groundwater. Water rises from below the ground in our lower floor, but only when the river is in flood. It is clearly substantial and abnormal, related to specific instances of prolonged and heavy rainfall. Gradual seepage/percolation eg: rising damp I would take to mean over days, weeks, months… This came (to depth of 2-3 feet) and went again within 24 hours.

From the govt. regulations for Flood:re:

Definition of “flood”
4.—(1) For the purposes of sections 64 to 69 of the Act, “flood” means water, from any source external to a building, which enters a building—

(a)(i)at or below ground level; or

(ii)above ground level, provided that part of the body of such water is at ground level;

and
(b)does so with a volume, weight or force which is substantial and abnormal.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), the following do not constitute a flood—

(a)the gradual seepage or percolation of water into a building (such as rising damp);

(b)water escaping from a water main, drain, sewer, pipe or other thing inside a building, unless such escape was solely the consequence of a flood falling within paragraph (1).

We split ours after having the bikes taken twice. House insurance insures the house bike insurance covers the bikes. Makes it insurable as otherwise they wouldn’t cover the bikes.

Rich_s

Found this on the Young vs SunAlliance case. (in short, should be superseded by Rohan Investments Ltd v Cunningham [1998])

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/flooding.html

It’s not that there aren’t ANY options, but I had hoped that adding cover for 2 more bikes and either flood:re backed flood cover or continuing to exclude it could be achieved without putting our premiums up from £400 to £1000. Seems I was overly optimistic, but thanks for the suggestions guys.

Grrrr…not fun! Have to admit our JL insurance isn’t cheap (~£900 which I did massively gulp at!), but with the number of bikes we have between us (9 over £1k each) and with a high theft rate in these parts, decided it was worth it!

a)the gradual seepage or percolation of water into a building

I lost all of my books to mould in a rented flat, happened over a month without us noticing after the flat above had a leak in the wall.

We had contents cover, they wouldn’t pay out because, as they explained, “Insurance isn’t for things that happen slowly sir.”

👿

Look at splitting it, if you are likely to need good flood cover and claim I’d look at specialists for that first and look at bikmo+ for the bike cover.

Look at Hiscox. No need to name items under £15k only need to tell them total value. Bikes are included as standard.
Not the cheapest but you get what you pay for.
Very flexible policies and used to dealing with high value art and jewellery, so don’t even blink at bike prices.

this has me worried.

Our insurance is currently about £150 a year contents only including accident and away from home with any number of bikes up to £5k value each up to our total insured value of £100k. Specialist occupation insurance (partner is a vet).

Our new place will be a flood zone 3 (but above the flood levels and actually protected by flood defences but not recongised as such) so I hope our insurer continues to give us cover.

Thanks, Hiscox not interested because of the flooding.

Bikmo+ for 4 bikes worth what they’re worth comes in at £770 which seems a little steep. But then all the bike only insurance seems as much as you’d expect to pay for home ins including bike cover…

Think we’re going to have to put up with incomplete cover or pay through the nose…

Andyl, might not be too bad if it’s not flooded before, there’s a points system and a risk ‘colour’ (ours is a “red risk” apparently).

Just for completeness in case it helps anyone else in future: We’ve ended up sticking with our local broker (Ryburne & co in Hebden Bridge). They offered us a good policy with uprated personal possesions cover to cover the bikes either with or without flood cover. Without flood cover it was no more than insuring all the bikes with Bikmo+, with was an extra £330 which seems fairly reasonable compared with other offers, (but until we’ve anything much worth insuring down there not worth it for us.)

And in fairness to Hiscox they called back (I’d forgotten they said they would do so) and offered a good policy including flood cover that was “only” a couple of hundred quid more (higher excesses though – £500 for contents claims.) Probably worth a try if you’re struggling to find cover – the guy I spoke to was decent and not a call centre automaton (and coincidentally brother of a guy who shoots photos with Danny Mac so he said!) which makes the process more bearable too.

Thanks again for all the input.

Chris.

OP – did you find a solution to this? your right about Bradford & bingley as just built up a new bike which I can’t get cover for due to it taking it over their £5K total value for specified bikes