Home Insurance - Insurers count the cost of high winds

Adverse weather has prompted a storm of calls to insurance companies which are now braced for bills running into hundreds of millions of pounds as householders race to repair damage to roofs, chimneys, fences and broken windows.

Norwich Union, a subsidiary of Aviva which insures one in five homes, said that it had received up to four times more calls than usual on the day of the storms while Royal Bank of Scotland, owner of Direct Line and Churchill, is increasing staff in its call centres. The Association of British Insurers, which represents the country's insurance companies, gave an early estimate for a bill in the "low hundreds of millions" of pounds. "It is too early to tell [exactly]," an ABI spokesman said.

Assessing the extent of the damage could take a number of weeks as insurers will need to send loss adjusters to visit the most severely damaged properties. More mundane claims, such as for broken glass or a few missing roof tiles, will be easier to process and are less likely to require an assessment by a loss adjuster. Making estimates of the cost of the damage are also made more difficult because the storm was widespread and not isolated in one area. Yet, even though the storms caused havoc and claimed at least 14 lives, insurers do not believe the financial bill will be as high as other severe weather conditions.

According to the ABI, the major storm in 1990 caused a clean-up bill of £2bn while the storms of 1987 - most clearly remembered for the damage caused to trees in Seven Oaks, Kent - cost £1.5bn.

Home Insurance in high winds

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