Can you claim for flood damage?
Yes, if you have flood cover, most UK home insurance policies cover damage from flooding - water entering your home from outside, such as an overflowing river, surface water or a burst main in the street. Flood is a separate part of your policy from an internal leak, and homes at high flood risk may be insured through the Flood Re scheme. Always check flood is included, as some policies exclude or limit it.
Flood and escape of water are two different things in insurance terms, and this catches people out. A flood means water entering your home from outside - a river bursting its banks, heavy rain overwhelming drains, or water surging in from the street. An internal leak, such as a burst pipe, sits under a separate 'escape of water' section. They are covered by different parts of your policy, sometimes with different excesses and conditions.
Most standard buildings and contents policies include flood cover, which pays to repair the structure and replace damaged belongings after a sudden inundation. But cover is not guaranteed everywhere - some policies exclude flood, cap the payout, or apply a high separate excess for homes in flood-prone areas. Reading your schedule to confirm flood is listed as a covered peril is essential if you live anywhere at risk.
For homes at high risk of flooding, the UK has a scheme called Flood Re. It works behind the scenes between insurers to help make flood cover more available and affordable for eligible properties. You still buy a normal home insurance policy from an insurer, but the flood element may be supported by Flood Re, which can make cover easier to obtain if you have struggled in the past.
Flood claims are often large and complex because the damage can be extensive - waterlogged floors and walls, contaminated contents, and long drying-out periods. Insurers may cover alternative accommodation while your home is uninhabitable, and the repair and reinstatement process can run for many months. Keeping detailed records of everything damaged is vital.
Given the scale of many flood claims, homeowners sometimes bring in independent help to make sure the settlement covers the full cost of reinstatement. A free claim review can tell you whether that is worth considering in your case.
What Flood Re does, and what it does not
Flood Re is a reinsurance scheme funded by a levy on UK home insurers. It lets an insurer pass the flood part of a policy across at a capped price, which makes cover available to homes that would otherwise be quoted out of the market. You never deal with Flood Re yourself, and you still buy an ordinary policy from an ordinary insurer.
It does not cover everything. Homes built after 1 January 2009 are excluded, deliberately, so that the scheme does not subsidise building on flood plains. Leasehold blocks above a certain size, purely commercial property and buy-to-let arrangements fall outside it in most cases. The scheme is also time limited: it is designed to run to 2039, on the basis that flood risk should be priced properly by then.
If you have been refused flood cover or quoted a figure you cannot meet, it is worth approaching a broker who places Flood Re business rather than assuming no cover exists.
Why flood claims run long
A flooded property has to be dried before it can be repaired, and masonry gives up water slowly. Professional drying commonly runs for several weeks, and a surveyor will take moisture readings before signing off that reinstatement can start. Starting repairs early traps moisture behind new plaster and stores up a second problem.
Floodwater from outside is also rarely clean. Where drains have surcharged, contents are treated as contaminated and are usually written off rather than cleaned, and the structure needs sanitising as well as drying. That is a legitimate part of the claim, not an optional extra.
Alternative accommodation
Most buildings policies pay for somewhere to live while your home is uninhabitable, and on a flood claim that can run for months rather than weeks. The cover usually has a limit expressed as a percentage of the sum insured, and it typically extends to boarding pets.
Keep every receipt, agree the arrangements with the insurer before committing, and check the limit early. Discovering the cap after eight months in rented accommodation is a bad way to find out what it was.
Rebuilding to resist the next flood
Property flood resilience means reinstating a flooded home so the next flood does less damage: solid floors instead of chipboard, raised electrical sockets, waterproof plaster or lime render, and flood barriers to doorways.
Insurers do not automatically pay for it, because a policy covers putting you back as you were rather than leaving you better off, which is the betterment principle. Some will contribute the amount a like for like repair would have cost and let you pay the difference, and some offer resilience grants after a widespread flooding event through local authorities.
It is worth asking the question early, while the specification is being written, rather than after the plasterers have finished.
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This is general information about UK home insurance claims, not financial or policy-specific advice. Always check your own policy wording.