The insurer says it has received more than 2,800 claims, primarily for storm damage
National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society (NFU Mutual) has received more than 2,800 claims relating to damage caused by Storm Ciara – the insurer estimates that it will need to pay out around £20m to customers in order to cover claims.
The majority of these claims – around 90% - relate to personal home insurance and claims for significant storm damage. This could include, for example, fallen trees damaging property, damage to roofs and tiles, water ingress and chimneys being blown over.
NFU Mutual reported that it received 170 claims for vehicles and just over 150 claims for flood-related damage.
These estimated costs are nearly double those recorded from Storm Doris in February 2017 – this amounted in £11.5m worth of pay-outs for NFU Mutual’s customers. In comparison, the floods of November 2019 cost the insurer £3m.
Storm Dennis
To date, NFU Mutual has also received more than 1,000 claims relating to Storm Dennis, the majority for flood damage to homes.
Storm Dennis featured concentrations of heavy rain in localised areas, which is why claims are centred on flooding rather than storm damage.
NFU Mutual stated that flood damage is much more expensive to repair and will often average around £20,000.
Despite this, the insurer predicted that the total damage from Storm Dennis will not exceed 2015’s Storm Desmond – this had pay-outs totalling £36m.
Regaining control
Paul Branch, head of claims at NFU Mutual, said: “The number of severe flood warnings is decreasing with water starting to make its way to rivers, so thankfully we’re expecting the situation on the ground to start getting better for most regions.
“We remain concerned about customers in Tewkesbury, Wales and Herefordshire and the Lake District, particularly given early indications for Storm Ellen taking us through to the weekend, so we’re monitoring the situation and preparing to engage our teams again.
“The clean-up operation is a nationwide team effort and our network of over 300 local offices continue to be out in force, helping customers in their communities to get claims underway, emergency accommodation arranged, damage quickly assessed and repairs and drying out started without delay.”
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