Christmas and the new year brought misery to thousands of people around the UK with widespread flooding and windstorm damage.
While we have seen some exceptional weather over recent years the scale and extent of the flooding this time round has at times been unprecedented.
With more bad weather still to come, flood warnings remain in place from the Environment Agency.
Environment Agency teams have been working around the clock to close coastal flood gates, shore up flood defences, deploy temporary defences, monitor water levels and issue flood warnings. The Thames Barrier has been closed with each high tide and will continue to close to protect people and property along the Thames.
John Curtin, head of incident management at the Environment Agency said: “With several severe flood warnings still in place we would urge people to be prepared by checking their flood risk, signing up to free flood warnings and keeping an eye on the latest flood updates via the EA website and Twitter."
When the waters recede, landlords and other property owners will face the unenviable task of clearing up the mess.
Some will be trying to put their lives back together without the aid of insurance as many people in areas prone to flooding are struggling to get cover at any premium - or find that even if they have a policy they are unable to claim.
What will happen to these properties in the future? If landlords and their tenants cannot get insurance cover, what happens next?
Can landlords ever hope to rent them out or even at worst sell them at anything other than a fraction of market value - if at all?
LAT thinks that the Government and the insurance industry must work together to deal with this crisis before it is too late.
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Comments
@Fred Jones, in addition to those sensible checks, when buying any rental property we always ask the question, If we had to live in a studio/one bed/two bed, could we live in this one?". If the answer is Yes, then we buy it.
When buying a property as a commercial venture first ask some basic questions. These will be something like:-
Is the future of the property secure, think new railway lines, roads, area redevelopments?
Does the property flood?
Would any one want to live in the property?
If the answers are anything but yes, no and yes then I would not even bother to look at the place let alone ask about buying it.
I do have a flat that is close to but not in a floodable area. My insurance people blithely upped my premium until I told them it was a first floor flat and the water would have to rise about 100 feet to reach it.
I think that raises some good comments what will landlords do. Tenants are not stupid and are checking things like insurance now if they can not get insurance the tenants will definitely reconsider living in that property.