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Beast from the East – the insurance aftermath

2nd May 2018
Wooden floor repair for insurance claim

As we all start to experience some warmer weather, it’s almost easy to forget the blizzards, strong winds, drifting snow and bitter cold that caused death and disruption across the country.

The weather system nicknamed the “Beast from the East” created some of the most testing weather experienced in the UK for years and policy holders whose homes were damaged by the events will not so easily forget.  Many won’t be back in their homes yet, others will just about be recovering from the aftermath.

Significant Increase In Escape Of Water Claims

Some insurers are reporting that claims increased by 300% during the weather system that hit our shores in February and March.  Insurance Age reported that the weather events, cost the insurance industry a whopping £600 million.

The majority of these home Insurance claims will be from an escape of water.  The ABI recently reported that claim costs for escape of water have risen by 24% and the average cost for this peril last year outstripped any other household claim at £2638 per claim (ABI).  In 2017, L&G reported that it saw a 48% drop in profits for its general insurance unit due to higher than expected costs from escape of water claims.

Chris Edwards, head of insurance at Plastic Surgeon comments: “Escape of water claims are spiralling out of control and this is largely due to outdated processes”.

Improving A Fragmented Approach

“The industry historically has an out of date and fragmented approach to escape of water claims resulting in unethical validation and fulfilment carried out by the same company with no independence, and unnecessary or late strip out works”.

“It’s interesting to note that despite the reported uplift in claims during recent weather events, we at Plastic Surgeon have not been inundated by the industry to manage the repairs.  Insurers are choosing to instead head straight for a replacement approach”.

“We believe that this in many cases is due to a lack of knowledge from adjusters”.

Plastic Surgeon is able to work alongside adjusters advising on what can be repaired and what can be replaced.  Of course, there will be instances where a replacement approach is the only option however we believe that this is only in 16% of cases.

Chris continues: “Our approach to repairing items which have been damaged as a result of an escape of water, reduces considerably the cost of replacing items, no waste is incurred, and the policy holder has far less disruption, in most cases a repair approach is also much quicker reducing cycle times substantially”.

Learn more about our dedicated insurance team and find out how we can help to reduce the cost of escape of water claims.

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