Andrew Holt reports on concerns over how the industry could respond if the floods return
The loss adjusting community will be stretched and could struggle if more severe weather returns, warned Jonathan Samuelson, director of Harris Claims.
“If we had another Sheffield/ Rotherham flood issue next week, I think that would cause some major challenges to the loss adjusting industry. They are pretty stretched at the moment, dealing with the claims that arose in June and July.
“If they had to drop everything and get out to see thousands of new claims, something would have to give. They cannot be doing two things simultaneously. I think it would be quite tricky.”
Samuelson recognised the job loss adjustors and the industry had done thus far, but maintained it could not go on if another flood crisis came about. “By and large the insurance industry and the loss adjustors performed remarkably with what happened in the summer but you had people routinely doing 60 or 70 hour weeks and I am not sure how long you can impose that on people before it would start to fall over.”
R&SA’s Alan Gairns said that there would be the personnel available to do the initial assessment and kick the claims process off. “Would we come under pressure in terms of the firms that are available for the drying out and reinstatement process? That might be a bigger issue,” he said.
“The unfortunate thing is the ground is so wet at the moment that there is a high probability, if we get another heavy rainfall, that we could end up with flooding somewhere.
“It is a bit of a worrying time towards the end of the year and into next spring.”
If there were say a major hurricane, would that draw off a lot of the loss adjusting population to the United States? Alan Gairns responded: “I do not know, to be honest. It could be a worry. We use in-house adjustors so it is not such a big issue.”
Swenja Surminski from the ABI said it was her understanding that there were quite a few British loss adjustors involved in Hurricane Katrina, with overseas help for the UK floods. “We had people coming in from abroad to help with the floods here. The timing would be quite important, because, as Alan said, we might have people who are being freed up because the repair processes here are well underway.
“It is a question of timing. By now, we are probably away from the immediate response scenario here and might have people available dealing with that.
“If it had happened four weeks later, that would have been a far, far bigger problem.”
She also added that it is important to keep in mind that any issue or problem is on the organisational side. “If you look at the financial side, it is quite important to point out that the industry is very strong and robust – as we have seen throughout the summer.
“As far as I am aware there are no financial difficulties arising from the floods, which is quite important to note.”
