UK flooding could cause "significant costs": Deloitte

The insurance industry can expect “significant costs” and rate rises from the recent UK flooding, according to Deloitte.

Deloitte insurance partner Ian Clark said: “Previous experience has shown that widescale flooding has a significant impact on the level of claims borne by insurance companies and in recent years has tipped them into losses for their household accounts. The overall impact of this will almost certainly be further premium rises for policyholders as insurers seek to recover the losses they have made.”

However, many insurers said they had seen few claims so far.

Zurich personal lines property claims director Jon Cawley said: “Zurich has so far had a small number of personal lines home claims for flooding in the Aberystwyth area.

“We understand the damage and upheaval caused by flooding and are doing all we can to make sure our customers are back in their homes as soon as possible.”

Cawley added that Zurich had hired a special consultant to reduce drying times for flooded properties.

He said: “We have been monitoring the weather conditions over the past few days in preparation, and will continue to do so as the rain looks set to persist.”

An Aviva spokesman said: “We have had a few flood claims reported from across the country, some of which were in Wales. Claims teams are on the ground and will be visiting homes as quickly as possible to assess the damage.”

A spokesman for AXA said the insurer had “limited exposure” to last week’s UK floods.

She said there were only a “handful of cases” for both sides of the business – personal and commercial lines, but added there might be some more claims coming in the next few days.

Spokesmen for Ageas and RSA said the insurers had no significant exposure.