No one will insure my riverside apartment

I have just bought my first home but I cannot seem to get insurance on it. I don’t understand the problem? It is an apartment in a building that is close to a river but several floors above ground level.

I have rung several insurers looking for contents insurance but all have refused to give me a quote because of the river – I gather the building itself is insured through the management company.

Surely someone will quote for people like me? I can’t believe all properties near rivers are blacked by all insurers?

Ms AN, Dublin

You'd be surprised. Insurers have been badly burned by flood claims in recent years – especially with the raft of Celtic tiger development on flood plains – and they are adopting a hardline attitude to flooding risk, especially in areas that have previously suffered claims.

This is true even though there has been no claim from you or any previous owner of this specific property.

You tell me the insurers you’ve spoken to have cited a 100m exclusion zone from any river. That might be understandable if you were talking about ground-floor accommodation, or premises which include a ground floor or basement, but it is frankly lazy for people in your circumstances.

Even the ground floor of your block is, you tell me, above river level and your apartment would appear to require an inundation of tsunami proportions up the Liffey to find itself in the firing line.

Risk assessment

Insurance is predicated to risk assessment but it would appear – at least in your case – that the companies concerned have simply abdicated themselves from the concept of risk assessment, which makes you wonder what the purpose of their business is.

All of which is little cheer to you as you worry about getting cover for your first home.

There’s enough hassle involved in getting on the property ladder these days without finding a new array of obstacles thrown in your way once you’ve got the keys.

The good news is that there are certainly companies out there that will quote for your business: it would appear you might have been a little unlucky with the companies you chose to contact.

I spoke to the Professional Insurance Brokers Association and, on the basis of a property several floors above ground level by the Liffey – for the purposes of the illustration they used Grand Canal Dock which is much closer to the water than your own location – they came up with five available insurers.

You will need to talk to them yourself as each will have certain restrictions on their policies.

Allianz will cover a property like yours and there were no immediately apparent restrictions.

Axa is another option, although I gather they will increase the excess – the amount of any claim you will have to pay before having a call on them – to €750 in relation to “escape of water”.

Zurich is also open to you. I understand that any policy they would offer would explicitly exclude the threat of flooding from the list of events covered but this is unlikely to be an issue for you (unless your own or the block's water tanks burst).

Certainly, flooding didn’t feature in the list of concerns you expressed about cover – which was essentially to cover fire and theft.

A fourth option is a company called Cover Centre. In its case, no quote would be offered for ground-floor premises but that will clearly not be an issue for you.

While there may well be others in the market who would cover a property such as yours, the final group mentioned by PIBA was Benchmark. However, you will need to contact that company directly to ascertain the conditions under which it will quote for a homeowner in your position.

It would be well worth your while approaching each of these companies and comparing the quotes they offer – and the details of the cover.

All too often people focus exclusively on the cost and live to regret it when they discover exclusions in the small print later, normally when they are looking to claim for a loss.

In any case, it is worth being familiar with what you can claim for as a call to an insurer over a loss can lead to loss of no claims bonus even in situations where no cover is applicable. Simply making the call appears to be enough to trigger a “claim”.

Send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or email dcoyle@irishtimes.com. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice.

*The article has been amended to note the excess at Zurich in this illustration is €750, not €700, that Benchmark will require a referral to the company itself and that Cover Centre, rather thahn Coverplan, is the fourth insurance company referred.