Poor drainage, more flooding
If the government allows water companies to take money from the public to provide water and renew and maintain the infrastructure, but then the companies give a large chunk of revenue to fat cat shareholders, rather than spend it on renewal and maintenance, I can understand why insurers may consider withdrawing flood cover.
Why should insurers have to pick up the bill for flood damage, if the floods could be reduced?
I appreciate that not all floods can be avoided, but just ask the Swindon water authorities when they are going to upgrade the public sewers which are over a 100 years’ old.
They give permission for new industrial estates to be built, but do not check if the sewers are capable of taking away the increased level of water.
If you put down vast amounts of concrete the water cannot soak into the ground, so has to find a drain. When it does find the drain, it is already full and overflowing, and it then goes back and floods the industrial estate. Result: claims running into millions, just for Swindon.
Peter Edwards
Managing director
Peter W Edwards & Co
Creative motor rates
Tom Jones is only scratching the surface when he refers to the difficulties he had trying to insure his holiday car (Comment,
27 September).
What he has seen is only a glimpse of the hidebound attitudes of personal motor insurers to anything which falls outside the tiny boxes which have replaced underwriting.
Jones suggests that the industry should demonstrate that it is flexible, creative, and willing to look at alternatives.
This has long been a cry from customers and brokers alike, but to no avail. It is a pity that the industry cannot step outside itself and have a look. I am minded of the emperor’s new clothes.
Jones might be interested in some other “unusual” examples of how private motor insurers think.
A woman found it almost impossible to insure a car she had inherited from her father. Why? The steering wheel had a knob fitted to assist the old gentleman to turn tight corners. Being scrupulously honest, the new owner had answered “yes” to the modifications question, and that ruled her out.
Many insurers refuse to insure borrowed cars on the (mistaken) grounds that there is no insurable interest. The same insurers will cover a car that I have borrowed from one of their repairers. What is the difference?
In the same, way insurers will raise no query if I insure a borrowed pair of skis or a camcorder on my travel policy. Are they making up the rules as they go along?
When insuring an older car, my friend was quoted a lower price for comprehensive cover than for third party fire and theft. How can we have any faith in an insurer’s pricing structure when this happens?
It is probably just as well Jones stopped his investigations after his French experience, otherwise he would still be writing now.
Roy Rodger
Insurance Training & Consultancy
Credit crunch
We read with great interest your cover story (News, 20 September) on the current credit crunch and the potential impact on the availability of financing.
Macquarie has provided goodwill lending to brokers for the past 20 years through all types of market conditions. It remains business as usual for us as we continue providing brokers with the finance they need.
We hope the current climate will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the consistency and stability of our approach, and the value of a lender who understands the industry.
Aden Nguyen
Macquarie Bank
