HIGH AND DRY BUT NO INSURANCE FOR HOME
‘My home can’t be f looded’ says this Mayo homeowner – but not one of the big companies will provide cover
A WOMAN whose house has never flooded, has been refused cover by a number of top insurance companies who insist her home is a flood risk.
Eveleen Mulloy, from Westport, Co. Mayo, said that – despite frequent local floods in recent years – her home has never been affected and does not fall within the flood-risk zones indicated on OPW maps of the area.
However, insurance companies Liberty, Aviva and Axa have all informed Mrs Mulloy that their ‘expert assessor’ has deemed her property a flood risk.
They have refused to identify the assessor or identify precisely why Mrs Mulloy is being blocked from getting home cover.
She said: ‘I have been insured with Liberty for a number of years and this was never an issue. Suddenly, in April, they contacted me to say it was now a problem and that they were cancelling my policy.
‘I couldn’t understand it and I was even more incensed when they said on the letter that, as an act of goodwill, they were going to waive the standard cancellation fee. As I understood it, that fee would only be in place if I cancelled the cover, not them.
‘I rang them and gave them a piece of my mind, with the end result that they have agreed to leave my policy in place until it expires in October but they won’t reinsure me afterwards.
‘That makes no sense at all. If a problem genuinely exists that would cause them not to insure me why are they allowing the policy to run its course?
‘They told me an expert assessor had concluded my house was at risk from flooding. If he is right, then surely they have a duty of care to me as a customer to put me in touch with the assessor in case there are problems I don’t know about.
‘However, they have refused to give me the assessor’s name as they claim it is commercially sensitive.’
Mrs Mulloy lives in the quay area of Westport and, while there is a stream close to her home, she insists this has never been a problem.
‘There is an area of high ground, the stream and then an area of low ground before my house. So the stream, if it ever floods, has plenty of places to disperse its water before it gets to me.
‘It has actually flooded but water has never ever come close to my house.’
When Mrs Mulloy ran into trouble with Liberty, she tried to get insurance from Aviva and Axa but both claimed her home was at risk from ‘storm, subsidence and flooding’, which, a frustrated Mrs Mulloy said, could be applicable to almost any property in the country.
‘Tell me where in Ireland is not at risk from a storm. If that’s the criteria, then no home anywhere would be able to get cover.
‘If we need to erect a bank in front of the house, we’ll do it. Whatever issues they have, we are prepared to spend some money to rectify them – but they won’t tell us what they are.’
Westport Credit Union has offered Mrs Mulloy a policy when her current one expires but this does not include flood cover.
‘I’m grateful to them and will more than likely take them up on it,’ she said. ‘They realise I don’t need flood cover as I am at no risk of being flooded.’
An Aviva spokesman said the company couldn’t comment on specific cases but is ‘happy to look at any additional expert information a customer may have to help us understand the flood risk’.
A Liberty spokesman said: ‘We are working with our customer to resolve her queries.’
‘They’ve told me they’re cancelling my policy’ ‘If the stream floods, no water comes close’