Coastal flooding threat blamed for Littlehampton mobile homes insurance headache

The owners of Climping Park, which has 105 mobile homes and 160 residents, the vast majority of them retired, said this week that two major insurers covering many of the homes had been cancelling policies, as a result of publicity surrounding the future of the sea defences.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Arun District Council are proposing that work should cease on maintaining the shingle bank and timber groynes along the Climping coast, after a two-year "grace" period.

A major consultation on the suggestion, part of a wide-ranging look at sea defences from Littlehampton to Pagham, closes at the end of this month.

In a letter to the EA, Heather Horstman, managing director of Rickwood Estates Ltd, which owns Climping Park, says publicity to the effect that maintenance of the sea defences at Climping will cease had caused the two companies to cancel insurances on a substantial number of homes at Climping Park, leaving elderly and vulnerable people with no cover at all.

'Seriously detrimental'

"It is not my place to decide on the rights and wrongs of their decision (although I believe they could have left all cover in place, barring flood damage), but it is clear that publicity surrounding your decision is already having a seriously detrimental effect on the population that you have a duty to protect."

Barry Pyatt, who has lived with his wife Angela in a mobile home at Climping Park for five years, said that when he tried to renew the home's insurance a fortnight after an exhibition at Climping Village Hall outlining the EA and Arun's proposals, the cost had rocketed by more than 50 per cent.

On the suggestion of the park's management, he tried another company, which initially came back with a much lower quote, but then, 24 hours later, said they would no longer insure the couple's home.

Option of withdrawing cover

"When I rang them up they said their under-writers were no longer covering properties along that stretch of the coast," said Mr Pyatt, a semi-retired film-maker, who eventually managed to arrange insurance with another company.

Malcolm Tarling, of the Association of British Insurers, said he could not comment on individual cases, but added: "Insurance companies will need to assess the flood risk in a particular area. Where there is a flood risk, they will be able to provide insurance cover, if that risk is adequately managed.

"If the risk deteriorates, which necessitates improvements and they are, for whatever reason, not carried out, and that risk is not managed to a sufficient level, insurers have the option of withdrawing cover or increasing premiums.

Last resort

"What insurers will do is try to work with customers, and will ask if individuals can do anything to reduce this risk. In this case we are talking about a caravan park, and caravans parks at the mercy of flooding, and are in some cases more vulnerable. Options such as replacing wooden floors with concrete ones, for example, are not viable.

"Insurers will take an individual assessment of the risk, They will use the latest guidance from the EA, as well as look at their own claims data.

"Insurers do not like to reduce cover, unless it is a last resort, and it is not an action any company will take lightly."

-----------------------------

Click here to return toLittlehampton Gazette news.

Where are you? Add your pin to the Gazette's international readers' map by clicking here.

Email the Gazette: [email protected]

Want to read this page in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu or 48 other languages? click here for Google translate.