Insurance to double in flooding blackspots

Residents living in the flooding blackspots of County Galway are now facing the prospect of their house insurance more than doubling – regardless of whether they put in a claim or not.

Householders in these areas, who recently received renewal notices, have been stunned by the huge increase in their premiums.

And it has been learned by The Connacht Tribune even those who were not affected by the recent flooding and have not made claims have also been hit with massive hikes in home insurance.

Late last year several parts of the county were left submerged in water resulting in an estimated €60 million in claims to insurance companies.

Areas like Ballinasloe, Craughwell, Claregalway, Portumna and several parts of South Galway were devastated by the flooding which occurred at the end of November.

Residents living in these areas are now set to be issued with hefty insurance bills when their premiums come up for renewal.

Last week a resident in Claregalway was horrified when she received her renewal notice from her insurance company to discover that the premium had more than doubled. This is despite the fact that her house had not been flooded and she had never put in a claim. It prompted her to price around and she eventually got a better deal.

Deputy Noel Grealish said that insurance companies were now ripping householders off by indiscriminately increasing premiums for homes located in the vicinity of flooded areas.

A number of insurance companies contacted by this newspaper declined to comment on the possibility of insurance premiums doubling for houses in flood affected areas.

Most said that the matter was under review while others said that they could not speculate on the matter as claims were still being processed.

However, a number of insurance company representatives spoke off the record and did not rule out the possibility of all households in flooding blackspots experiencing significant increases in their insurance premiums.

“The quotes will be based on the potential to suffer flooding based on what happened last November. Obviously houses built on higher ground where there is no potential to flood will not be subjected to such increases”, one representative said.

But many house owners who were lucky enough to escape flooding while their neighbours were submerged will effectively be “tarred with the same brush” by the insurance companies.

The house owner in Claregalway saw her home insurance quote go from around €400 to €900 and was told that this was due to flooding that had occurred in the village.

Local councillor Jim Cuddy has slammed the insurance companies for targeting the most vulnerable and said that it could result in insurance cover becoming unaffordable.