First half was worst in 10 years for weather claims – ABI

The first half of 2014 was the worst for weather-related property claims in at least a decade, according to the latest statistics from the ABI.

UK insurers incurred  £844.8m of weather-related property claims in the first half of 2014. Weather claims made up 37% of the £2.3bn total property claims in the half and were by far the biggest individual source of claims.

The heavy claims burden followed the severe storms that hit the UK at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

The bulk of the weather claims (£505m or 60%) were from domestic properties, while the remaining 40% was commercial.

The biggest source of the domestic claims was £297m of storm-related damage, with £205.5m coming from flooding and £2.6m from weather-related burst pipe claims.

Most of the claims (£703m) came in the first quarter, but the second quarter was by no means quiet, when £143m more weather claims came in. Some of the second quarter claims volume was caused by a delay in reporting claims from the first quarter.

The UK was battered by a series of storms starting from October 2013 and lasting until February 2014.

The ABI statistics show that most of the claims from the series of storms fell in the first half of 2014. Weather-related property claims for the fourth quarter of 2013 were £411m.

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