£6.1 billion – that’s £6,100,000,000 – was paid by insurers for claims during 2025. That is a phenomenal amount of money and the main cause of property damage is due to water – whether escape of water (burst pipes and so on), flood and storm.
This illustrates the principle of the way in which everybody’s insurance premiums are placed in a big ‘pot’ so that when your claim occurs the insurers have ample funds to pay for the disaster. There are many factors in refining how the premium ends up to be your quotation and one of the major features is where your property is located. If you have a city centre location the main risks are probably theft and malicious damage, whilst if you are rural, storm and flood are likely to be a large part of the premium.
Insurance premiums will fluctuate – they do go down as well as up! – and currently many premiums are similar to last year. Immediately after Covid premiums rose significantly because of the large number of claims, and the higher values of these claims. Fortunately, insurers have financially recovered from that severe blow.
The most important advice we can provide is that no two insurance companies offer identical cover. Price is no clue as to the quality of cover or service and it may be that the least expensive offers the widest cover; conversely the most expensive may have the worst cover! This is so true with regard to self catering insurances.
This is where your Insurance Broker is able to recommend the most appropriate value for money for your circumstances. You need to ensure that you have an Insurance Broker who is experienced in the sector for which you are asking – we specialise in self catering but when you ask us to cover your helicopter or superyacht we will politely decline!
David J Morris ACII
Chartered Insurance Broker
J L Morris (Insurance Brokers) Limited
01202 642840
www.selfcateringinsurance.co.uk