Washed out? Don’t panic!

Storm and flood insurance claims explained

WE’VE just survived what is thought to have been the wettest Easter since 1957 and, aside from being practically trapped between four walls for as many days and all the main parades’ having been called off, your disappointment may have multiplied if you found yourself getting soaked indoors, too.

If you live in Jávea, Torrevieja or Dénia, and you’re on the ground floor, you may have suffered the extreme misfortune to have been ankledeep in water in your lounge: within the space of 24 hours, a whopping 302 litres of rain per square metre was recorded in Jávea, which translates as 30.2 centimetres, or over a foot.

Obviously, if your home or its contents have sustained major damage as a result of the recent monsoon, you’ll be thinking of making a claim on your insurance, if you haven’t already.

What to bear in mind: Read and digest your policy

Firstly, if you only have buildings insurance, be aware this will not cover your kitchen or bathroom fixtures if your policy is with a Spanish company; these count as ‘contents’. However, if your policy is underwritten by an insurer in the UK, anything that would not fall out if you turned your home upside down is classed as ‘buildings’. Make sure you know the difference if you only have one or the other type of cover, and make certain that the sum you have both buildings and contents insured for is enough to replace everything as new; if you are significantly underinsured, your company may reduce your claim in proportion to the shortfall. Keep a constant yearround check, especially if you have expensive tastes and are a bit of a shopaholic.

Secondly, your policy may have an excess, although normally, in the event of a combined buildings and contents claim, only one will apply. Spanish insurers do not often involve an excess for either, meaning no outlay for you if the claim is covered in full, but those underwritten in the UK almost certainly will.

UK policies normally have a singlearticle limit for contents and anything worth more than this should be ‘specified’ on your documents; if you know you have anything particularly expensive in your house, check your limits just in case.

What to do if disaster struck you at the weekend

Your first port of call, if they’re open (hopefully they’ll have a 24hour emergency helpline) is your insurance company; some of the more sophisticated ones may have a disaster recovery service they can send out to you. This is less common with Spanish insurers, and you may be on your own with the immediate aftermath; and here, you are required as a condition of your policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the damage.

Of course, ‘reasonable’ will vary; if you’re disabled, you’re not expected to move your furniture out of a room with a gushing ceiling, and you don’t have to go up on the roof to lay a tarpaulin over a hole, but if any damagelimitation action is within your power, do what you can.

Claims for rain damage tend to fall into two categories: flood, which is at ground level, and ingress of water, or a leak. For the latter, rain has to be pretty dramatic for the damage to the building that allowed the water in to be covered; it’s generally considered that a correctlymaintained and properlybuilt home will withstand ‘normal’ severe weather conditions. Typically, insurance companies operating in Spain will not consider rain to have directly damaged a ‘healthy’ house unless at least 40 litres per square metre in one hour (four centimetres, or nearly two inches) have been recorded; the Easter rain is likely to qualify, depending upon where you live, but you may be asked to seek an official weather report.

Dénia consumer office has provided a link, https:// oac.denia.es/es/index.aspx, where you can apply for one – go to Trámites habituales (‘Everyday transactions’), then Instancia general (‘General requests’) and fill in the online form.

Ingress of rainwater claims

A loss adjuster will normally be sent out to inspect the damage, although a builder may be appointed first to view it, and if they consider the source of the leak to be general wear and tear, lack of maintenance or poor construction, they are likely to refuse to cover its repair.

However, it is normally the case with Spanish insurers that the actual internal water damage will be covered; policies underwritten in the UK typically pay for this as long as your buildings cover includes ‘accidental damage’, an optional extension (if your insurance company offers this for buildings, contents or both, take it. It’s worth the extra premium, since most nonweatherrelated claims are either for burglaries or for accidental breakage).

Where you are claiming for ingress of water, always be prepared that the actual leak origin – be it from the roof, via a wall or a window, for example – may well not be covered, and that you will have to arrange to have it fixed before the insurer will start work on, or pick up the tab for, the interior damage. Insurance companies may be able to recommend builders in your area if you do not know anyone, but be aware that contractors working for insurers tend to charge considerably more; don’t let an estimate from your company’s recommended builder scare you!

If your policy is underwritten by a UK insurer, standard practice is to either have a network of builders and to appoint one to carry out the work, if covered, or – if there is not one in your area – they will ask you to acquire an estimate. Despite common belief, one estimate is usually enough; you do not generally have to seek two with the aim of your company accepting the lower of these. But it is very important that every step of the work is detailed and priced separately on the quote.

Typically, payment of the claim is on completion of the work and made directly to the contractor, with UKbased insurers, although Spanish insurers are more inclined to pay out based upon an estimate or a loss adjuster’s own valuation, and will transfer the settlement directly into your bank account, although some work with an assistance company, such as Mondial, and will settle the contractor’s bill directly.

Where a leak from your roof spills into someone else’s house, as is the case with pipe leaks, your insurance company will cover the third party’s repairs – in Spain, liability is ‘strict’ in these cases, meaning the third party does not have to prove you are ‘at fault’; it’s enough to be living in the property where the water is coming from!

Floods and the 'Consorcio'

For flood damage – where the water entered at ground level – you are less likely to have to worry about the source of it not being covered; however, your insurance company may not pay for it, since rain or burst riverbanks severe enough to flood a property are considered a ‘natural disaster’ for claim purposes, and repairs are covered by the State.

To this end, your insurance company may refer you to the Insurance Compensation Consortium, better known as the Consorcio. Being faced with having to deal with a government office which is pointless ‘chasing up’ and where you cannot get through to a person who is directly handling your case can seem daunting and frustrating, but the process is simper than it looks and cases are frequently settled quickly. Here, you will need to complete a form, acquire an estimate, and supply copies of your NIE and passport or, if you are a Spanish national, your DNI, plus – and this is important – a copy of the bank receipt to prove your insurance premium has been paid, including a breakdown that shows the part owing to the Consorcio. You will normally receive this by post when you pay your premium, whether in full or in instalments, but can ask your bank for a copy; if you bank online, you can find one by clicking on the debit entry on your account and downloading a PDF of it.

The Consorcio sends loss adjusters to every case, however small; make sure you have hard copies of all the above documents to show him or her when they come to inspect. The loss adjuster will work out a value and the Consorcio will pop the money in your bank account, normally within days of the visit.

Obviously, to deal with your own Consorcio claim, you need to be able to speak Spanish, or at least be able to understand the form you are completing and communicate with the loss adjuster in person and the claims handler by phone. Depending upon how helpful your insurance company is, they may guide you through it, or even handle it all on your behalf, settling the claim themselves when they receive the cash from the Consorcio.

Don’t jump the gun!

Crucially, however, whether your claim is for a leak or a groundlevel flood, do not get the repairs carried out until you have firm confirmation that you are covered. Emergency repairs – such as a patchup to prevent even more water coming into your home – count as ‘damage limitation’, and it is perfectly acceptable to get on with those as, essentially, you are saving your insurance company money by not letting the destruction get worse. But any other repairs can prejudice your claim: if it cannot be inspected, it cannot be properly valued, and it is hard to prove it was there in the first place.

For contents, you can go ahead and replace damaged items if you know they are beyond repair and are willing to take the risk of not getting a full refund (such as if you badly need a new sofa and your raindamaged one is going mouldy), but keep the originals for inspection. Ideally, unless urgent, avoid buying new until advised.

However slow the process feels, and however fed up you’re getting with wet patches on walls and floors, don’t be tempted to repair and replace until authorised; remember insurance companies right now have a huge workload because of the Easter rain, but they will get it sorted out for you as soon as they reasonably can.

If you can, resist the temptation to phone them regularly to ‘ chase’ them and complain about delays – did you know that over 90% of a claims handler’s workload, other than transacting new claim notifications, is taking ‘chaseup’ calls? This leaves them with just 10% of their time to actually handle alreadyreported claims, so these telephone prompts to remind them to do what they’re already doing are, in fact, stopping them from getting on with resolving your case!