There are many factors leading to the increasing prevalence of flooding in the UK. It may be caused by overflowing rivers, tidal surges, or (more often) by surface water run off collecting in large quantities. The problem has been made worse because building on flood plains was not discouraged by the planning system until recently.

Insurers have access to ever more sophisticated data about the location, depth and predicted frequency of all types of flooding, so can use this when deciding whether to offer flood cover or not, and on what terms. For some time, an agreement between the government and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has helped to keep flood cover available for homes and small business properties and reduce the premiums chargeable for properties at risk of flooding. This is called the Statement of Principles. It expires in June 2013 and will not be renewed.

The government is discussing with the ABI what alternative scheme (if any) can be agreed to keep flood cover available and affordable for owners of properties that are at risk. Their decision is considerably overdue (originally planned for Spring 2012), partly because current austerity measures mean that the government does not wish to become insurer of last resort for such properties. It is unlikely that any scheme agreed will apply to all properties at risk, or will prevent insurers from setting higher excesses or other conditions for such insurance.

A property owner or occupier may be able to reduce the risk of flooding by installing flood protection measures in the property. These measures are referred to as property level protection (PLP). This may improve the ability of the property owner or occupier to obtain flood insurance or reduce the excess that is charged. Flood protection measures will differ depending on the nature of the property, the likely cause of flooding and its predicted depth. Not all flooding can be prevented by such measures, which fall into two types:

For more details on the issues affecting flood insurance, see:

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has been collaborating with the Environment Agency (EA), ABI, the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and others (including PLC Property) to develop a template report that draws together the information on property level protection installed at a property.

The Environment Agency has today released:

These documents will be revised and updated in response to comments and user feedback.

The parties involved in development of the documents intend the template flood risk report to give:

The guidance stresses that insurance practice will vary and that there is no guarantee that the information in the report will improve the insurance terms offered by any particular insurer. However, the ABI and BIBA have endorsed the report as a useful initiative (see Endorsements for the template report).

A flood risk report is intended to be completed by a professional, suitably qualified, independent surveyor, who may be engaged by the:

In some cases, local authority, Lead Local Flood Authority or Environment Agency schemes may use an in-house surveyor, or project manager, to produce the report.

The report is to be given to the property owner and the guidance encourages them to share the information in it with their tenants (for example, the advice on proper fitting of any demountable PLP measures, such as flood gates or toilet bungs).

Lawyers will not become involved in preparing flood risk reports, but may come across them in any of the following ways:

The report has 5 sections and a glossary. Where the surveyor does not have the relevant information or part of a section is inapplicable, then the surveyor can simply state this in the report.

This report will be completed after the PLP measures have been installed. It anticipates the property owner will have had an initial survey done (called the pre-installation survey) to identify the flood risk and recommend potential PLP measures.

There is no template for a pre-installation survey. It may be a bespoke report prepared by a qualified flooding engineer, a survey done by a company specialising in PLP measures, a desktop flood search or something less formal. For more detail about flood searches, see Practice note, Flood Risk Searches.

These organisations have endorsed the template report:

“The ABI welcomes the publication of a standard template for surveying property-level flood risk. Our members have helped to develop the template and are confident that it will give surveyors a recognised framework for assessing a complex and variable risk, and will help consumers set out the flood risk information that insurers may ask them to provide.” (ABI.)

“BIBA welcomes this approach and believes it will bring benefits to the way customers share information on property level protection with the insurance industry. We are making our members aware of this approach and have asked them to consider this information where it is available.” (BIBA.)

“The RICS welcome having a single method for post installation reporting as this will help the industry to respond to the growing challenge of flood management. Its members will be available to assist users of the report with information on the various flood resistance and resilience measures available” (RICS.)