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Increasingly unpredictable weather in the UK is putting more homes at risk of flooding every year (Source: BBC). During Flood Action Week we wanted to take time to help homeowners understand their flood risk and take steps to prepare – which can help you save £1000’s if the worst happens.

1 in 4 properties are at risk

Recent data from Flood Re shows that one in four properties in the UK are at risk of flooding. While this might seem surprising, the risk isn’t limited to properties near rivers or the coast. Heavy rain, surface water, and overflowing drains can all lead to flooding, even in urban areas that haven’t flooded in the past.

The benefits of flood preparation

Taking action before a flood doesn’t just help keep you and your family safe – it can also save time, money, and stress during recovery.

Research from Flood Re shows that:

• The average cost of repairing a flooded home is around £67,663. But for households that have prepared in advance, this drops to £24,000.
• The average “drying time” for a flood-prepared home is 10 days, compared to 77 days for an unprepared one.
• And the average time spent in alternative accommodation drops from a massive 210 days to 0 – meaning you can stay in your home throughout the recovery process.

Flood preparation isn’t just a safety measure, it’s a financial and emotional safeguard too.

Is your home at risk of flooding?

According to research from The ABI, 25% of UK adults don’t know if their current home is at risk of flooding and storm damage.

Depending on where you live, you can check your property’s flood risk level on the following websites:

• England- gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk
• Scotland- https://map.sepa.org.uk/floodmaps
• Wales- https://naturalresources.wales/flooding/check-your-flood-risk-by-postcode/?lang=en
• Northern Ireland- https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/topics/flood-maps-ni

Additionally, particularly during autumn and winter, we recommend you keep an eye out for UK weather warnings here: www.weather.metoffice.gov.uk/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings

Practical tips for preparing your home

1 in 10 UK adults have experienced flood or storm damage in their current home. 45% of them said that they wish they had taken more steps to mitigate against it (Source: The ABI). Luckily, there are a number of steps you can take to prepare your property and belongings. These include:

1. Making sure you know how to turn off your gas, water and electricity in case you need to leave your home during a flood
2. Moving valuable/sentimental items and important documents upstairs or placing them into waterproof containers
3. Investing in sandbags to place in front of your doors and windows, which can reduce the amount of water coming in
4. Cleaning out gutters at least twice a year. This keeps them free of leaves and debris that could lead to water damage to the roof and walls
5. Checking your home insurance policy to understand what is and isn’t covered when it comes to extreme weather

You should also consider preparing an emergency grab bag, which can be useful in many extreme weather scenarios. Flood Re has prepared a list of suggested items to put into an emergency grab bag, which you can read here: https://www.floodre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Flood-Re-Floodmobile-Flood-Kit.pdf

Be prepared and stay protected

Flooding can be devastating, but preparation makes all the difference. With just a few proactive steps, you can reduce damage, speed up recovery, and potentially save tens of thousands of pounds in repairs and disruption.

This Flood Action Week, take the time to check your risk, make a plan, and ensure your insurance is up to date. Being prepared today could make all the difference tomorrow.

About Defaqto

What is Defaqto?

Defaqto is one of the UK’s most trusted sources of financial product and market intelligence. They support financial institutions, intermediaries and consumers to make smarter financial decisions. Defaqto maintain the UK’s largest financial product database, using research to develop independent ratings, insights and technology.

How long has Defaqto been operating?

Defaqto has been providing independent financial product analysis for over 30 years.

Who owns Defaqto?

Defaqto is part of Fintel plc, but maintain editorial independence from all financial services providers. This means their ratings remain unbiased and objective.

 

About Star Ratings

What are Defaqto Star Ratings?

Defaqto Star Ratings are expert, unbiased assessments of financial products based on features and benefits. Their ratings range from 1 to 5 Stars, with 5 Stars representing an excellent product with a broad range of features and benefits.

How often are Star Ratings updated?

Defaqto conducts an extensive annual review of all Star Ratings, publishing updated ratings on 1st February each year.

Defaqto also updates sole product ratings whenever providers launch new products or make significant changes to existing products. This means that Star Ratings remain accurate and up-to-date, giving consumers confidence in the quality assessments they rely on.

What products does Defaqto rate?

Defaqto rates products across insurance, banking, investments, pensions, life & protection and many others. For more details, please visit www.defaqto.com/star-ratings.

How does Defaqto decide which features to include in their analysis?

Defaqto’s feature selection process combines expert knowledge, primary research, and input from providers in the market. This allows them to evaluate aspects that matter most to consumers.

Defaqto vs Trustpilot/Feefo?

Defaqto and Trustpilot/Feefo both play important roles in making smarter financial decisions. Defaqto is one of the UK’s most trusted sources of financial product and market intelligence.

Trustpilot and Feefo look to represent the voice of the customer, providing reviews based on customer experience. Defaqto’s ratings alongside Trustpilot and Feefo’s customer reviews provides a powerful combination when looking for a suitable financial product.

 

About the Ratings Process

How does Defaqto ensure their ratings are unbiased?

Defaqto’s ratings are based on objective analysis of product features and benefits. They don’t consider price, provider size, or commercial ties when determining ratings.

Why doesn’t Defaqto use a bell curve approach like some competitors?

Defaqto shows clear quality boundaries for each rating level instead of limiting the number of products that can achieve each rating. If a product meets their criteria for a 5 Star Rating, it will receive that rating regardless of how many other products achieve the same standard.

What are Core Criteria?

Core Criteria are minimum standards for essential features that apply to 3, 4, and 5 Star rated products. These ensure that highly rated products meet customer expectations for fundamental benefits.

Whilst you might spend less time in your home and more time outside in the summer sun, we wanted to share our tips to keep your house cool and protected whilst it’s hot.

Keeping it cool

Here’s how you can stop your home from keeping in the heat when it’s too warm:

1. Open windows on opposite sides of the house to encourage air flow throughout. If you have a multi-storey home open the windows upstairs so when the hot air rises it’s not trapped up there.

2. Close curtains or blinds during the day, especially on sunny sides of the house. This will prevent the sun from heating up your home.

3. Invest in an electric fan, which can be purchased at a fairly low cost. For an extra cool breeze place a bowl of ice in front of the fan.

4. When possible, limit heat-producing activities. This includes using the oven, hairdryers and having hot showers and baths.

Protecting your garden

We often talk about protecting your home but with the sunshine we’ve got gardens on our mind too. Here are some tips for securing your garden and any property you keep in it:

1. Keep Your Back Door and Gate Locked

Even if you’re only stepping out briefly, always lock your back door and garden gate. Many garden gates use a sliding pad bolt and padlock, but people often skip the padlock out of convenience, leaving an easy entry point for burglars.

2. Secure Your Shed or Outbuilding

If you store valuable items like tools, office equipment, or gym gear in an outdoor building, they may only be covered by your home insurance if there’s clear evidence of forced entry. Make sure to keep it locked. For enhanced security add motion sensor lights, a security camera, and a burglar alarm.

3. Protect Your Garden Furniture

Most home insurance policies don’t cover damage from general wear and tear. So make sure you use appropriate covers for your garden furniture when not in use. If possible, store it in a dry, secure place during the colder months to protect it from bad weather.

4. Secure Ornaments and Expensive Garden Equipment

Deter thieves by securing garden ornaments and valuable outdoor equipment. When you finish using tools, toys, or gardening equipment, store them safely in a shed or garage instead of leaving them out where thieves can easily grab them.

Contents in the open and garden items are protected up to £1000 with a Uinsure Home Insurance policy.

 

Got a sinking feeling?

Subsidence is when the ground beneath a property sinks or shifts, causing the building’s foundations to move. This movement can result in cracks to walls, ceilings, and brickwork. If left untreated it may lead to serious structural damage.

Why does subsidence get worse in hot weather?

Subsidence tends to worsen during periods of hot and dry weather because soil shrinks as it dries out. This shrinkage removes support from the building’s foundations, leading them to drop or shift unevenly.

Prolonged heatwaves can also dry out tree roots. They then draw more moisture from the surrounding ground in search of water. This increases the risk of subsidence for nearby properties.

What you should look out for

Homeowners should keep an eye out for tell-tale signs of subsidence, including large cracks in walls, especially those wider than 3mm (about the width of a £1 coin). These cracks often appear around doors and windows or where an extension meets the main building.

Other indicators include doors and windows sticking or becoming misaligned, uneven floors, or visible ripples in wallpaper not caused by damp. If you notice any of these signs, seek professional advice promptly to assess the situation.

If you’re unsure about what your home insurance does and doesn’t cover when it comes to topics like your garden and subsidence, check your policy documents.

 

If you’re a Uinsure customer…

If you have a policy with Uinsure and you need to make a claim, click here to find our claims page.

Or, if you’d rather speak to us on the phone, give us a call on 0344 844 3844.

“Do I really need home insurance?” is a fair question, especially if you’re a first time buyer. But it’s not just a formality, it’s a necessity to prevent you from being out of pocket due to damage to your home, and sometimes your personal property.

First, what is home insurance?

As you might guess from the name, home insurance protects your home. You can choose building insurance, contents insurance, or both.

Buildings insurance covers your home for damage caused by accidents or extreme weather, such as fires, storms or flooding. If you choose contents insurance (which majority of home insurers include or offer as an add-on) it covers the repair or replacement of personal items if they’re stolen or damaged.

In simple terms, home insurance provides additional peace of mind that your home and/or belongs are protected.

Exclusions apply. Please refer to your policy wording booklet to see what is and isn’t covered.

What’s the likelihood of having to use home insurance?

In 2022 the UK Fire and Rescue Services attended 185,437 fire incidents (Source: GOV.UK). In 2023 it was estimated that 5.5 million homes and businesses in England were at risk of flooding (Source: GOV.UK).

If home and contents can partially be recovered, the average fire restoration cost is still a massive £35,681 (Source: Checkatrade). This causes a huge amount of financial stress added to an already difficult situation.

A flooded home costs an average of £4500 to repair (Source: This is Money). Not quite the shocking figure that the average fire restoration costs, but still a large sum of money for the average UK homeowner.

Home insurance not only protects you from these costs, but can provide cover for additional living expenses if you are forced to temporarily relocate into alternative housing. This can include the cost of a hotel and meals while your home is being repaired.

Finally, having buildings insurance is a requirement of mortgage lenders. As you can tell from the statistics, it’s not just a formality. Mortgage lenders need to make sure that the property they are lending on is protected. This reduces losses not just for themselves but for the homeowners too.

 

Looking for home insurance?

If this article has done its job in showing why home insurance is so important, speak to your financial adviser to get a quote.

 

Sources:

GOV.UK (Fire and Rescue Incident Statistics England Year Ending September 2022)

GOV. UK (Flood Action Week: Households Need to Know Their Flood Risk After 2023’s Record Breaking Weather)

CheckATrade (Fire Damage Restoration Cost)

This is Money (A Flooded Home Costs £4500 Repair Research Shows)

Keeping your home well-maintained is valuable for more reasons than just improving the property’s appearance. In this article we’re going to discuss some of these reasons, so you can understand how to improve your physical and financial safety through property maintenance.

 

Your financial safety

Being on top of property maintenance protects your finances in a couple different ways.

When it comes to selling or renting your home, potential buyers and tenants are likely to look into how well maintained the property is. Spotting problems that buyers will have to fix themselves could make them inclined to offer a lower price, or put them off the property entirely.

Plus, not maintaining your property often has a knock-on effect that could cause further issues. This can be more expensive than keeping the property in good condition in the first place.

For example, a build-up of debris in your gutters can ultimately lead to water flowing to the wrong places. This can result in damage to foundations, walls, roofs, windows and more. The average cost of gutter cleaning in the UK is £20-£30 per hour (Source: Checkatrade). The average cost of roof repair in the UK is £650, and up to £1100 depending on damage and size of your property (Source: Roofing Association).

There are many examples we could give of these knock-on effects caused by not maintaining property. The one thing most of them have in common is that the repairs are more expensive and time consuming than keeping your property well maintained in the first place.

 

Your physical safety

More important than protecting yourself financially is protecting your physical safety.

In 2020 roughly 2.7 million UK citizens had to make a trip to the hospital due to an accident that happened in their home (Source: National Accident Helpline). We could be avoiding some of these issues with proper maintenance to keep your home safe and comfortable.

Some home maintenance and improvements methods include:

• Repairing stairs and banisters to reduce the likelihood of tripping and falling
• Purchasing electrical socket covers, especially if you have young children at home
• Testing your fire and carbon monoxide alarms regularly
• Installing loft and/or cavity wall insulation and double glazing to reduce breathing issues that are linked to cold temperatures. This also reduces your energy bills in the long-run
• Checking your roof is well maintained, especially in the winter, to reduce likelihood of tiles coming loose in the wind

Many of the above points are even more important for older homes. They are more likely to have worn-out systems that need to be updated to meet current safety standards.

 

In summary

It’s important to keep your property well maintained for a number of reasons. It is cheaper and less dangerous if you can catch and fix problems early on rather than waiting for them to become critical issues.

This is especially important for older homes and during times when bad weather is more likely to damage already weakened areas of your home.

Home and Landlords insurance is designed to financially protect you should something unexpected happen to your property. Failure to maintain your property can lead to damage. Because reasonable precautions were not taken to prevent it, your insurer may not cover this.

 

Sources:

CheckATrade (Gutter Cleaning Cost)

Roofing Association (How Much Does a Roof Repair Cost in the UK)

National Accident Helpline (Accidents Home)