Home insurance in Flood Zone 3: what it costs you, and how Flood Re caps it

Flood Zone 3 sounds like a verdict. For insurance it is not. Insurers price flood cover on their own models, and those lean on the chance of flooding with defences counted, on whether the house has flooded before, and on its claims history. Many Zone 3 homes are insured at an ordinary price. Some are not. This page explains which is which, before you find out the week before exchange.

What Flood Zone 3 actually means

It is the Environment Agency's map of where rivers and the sea could reach without any defences at all. It is used for planning, so it is deliberately cautious. A street behind a well kept flood wall is still Zone 3 on this map.

The figure insurers lean on is the Agency's rivers and sea likelihood, which does count the defences. It comes in four bands:

• High: more than 1 in 30 chance each year, about 3.3 percent.
• Medium: between 1 in 30 and 1 in 100 each year, about 1 to 3.3 percent.
• Low: between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000 each year, about 0.1 to 1 percent.
• Very Low: less than 1 in 1000 chance each year, under 0.1 percent.

A Zone 3 house with a Low band behind defences is a very different insurance question from a Zone 3 house with a High band and no defence.

Flood Re, and the homes it covers

Flood Re is a government backed reinsurance scheme set up under the Water Act 2014. An insurer can pass the flood part of a home policy to Flood Re, and the premium for that part is then capped by the council tax band. It is designed to run until 2039. You do not apply to Flood Re yourself. You ask an insurer that uses it. These are its rules for a home, as published:

• Built before 1 January 2009. Homes built on or after that date are excluded.
• Has a domestic Council Tax band A to H, or the equivalent.
• Used as a private home, occupied by the policyholder or their family, or unoccupied.
• The policy is in the name of one or more individuals, not a company.
• A leasehold flat qualifies if it is a single unit, or in a block of three or fewer where the freeholder lives in one.
• Buy to let can qualify if the above are met. Social housing, mixed use and commercial property are excluded.

The one that catches most buyers is the first. A new build, or any home built from 1 January 2009, is outside the scheme, on the reasoning that it should not have been built where it floods. A new build in Zone 3 is the case to check most carefully.

What to do before you exchange

• Get the rivers and sea band with defences, not only the zone.
• Ask the seller in writing whether the house has ever flooded or made a flood claim.
• Ask at least two insurers for a quote, and ask each one whether they use Flood Re.
• Look at the excess as well as the premium. A low premium with a five figure flood excess is not cheap.
• If the band is High, ask a surveyor about property flood resilience: door guards, air brick covers, a raised boiler. Insurers sometimes price those in.

The free check on this site gives the Flood Zone and the surface water band. The £12.99 report adds the rivers and sea band with defences counted, the warning areas and gauges nearby, and the Flood Re checklist, as a dated PDF you can send to a broker.