Episode 3 Rip Off Britain

We asked YOU to tell us what's left you feeling totally ripped off,

and you contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong, and

the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.

There's a lot of blurb written down, but in practice

the words are absolutely meaningless!

I mean, people just can't afford these prices, it's ridiculous!

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money,

and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.

They're in a win-win situation and you're in a lose-lose situation.

If you don't do something about it, you think it's your own fault.

And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame,

you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.

So whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake...

We're here to find out why you're out of pocket

and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money. This is Rip Off Britain

Hello, and thank you for joining us on Rip Off Britain.

Of course, today, it's a beautiful sunny day

but we're talking about a great British obsession.

Because there's no doubt about it, our green and pleasant land

is only so very green because we get a lot of one thing - rain!

And in recent years we've been getting a lot more of it than

we used to, with huge swathes of the country submerged under

flood water that's collected after either days upon

days of steady downpours or that sudden massive storm.

And it's when we get more rain than the drains can handle,

or the ground simply can't cope with so much water, that the

damage begins and those who are affected will obviously look

to their insurance companies to help foot the bill to put things right.

But as the people in today's programme, including me,

I have to say, have found out,

it's not just the ground that can't always cope with extreme weather.

Yes, the insurance companies themselves can also struggle

to cope with the damage that heavy rain causes.

As a result, as many of you will have noticed, premiums have gone up.

Some people are now finding it hard to get cover at all, and a number

of homeowners like our very own Angela here, that one there, have

suddenly been told that their properties, which never used to be classed

as "at risk" have now been recategorised as being in danger.

So as we explore some of the fallout of our extreme weather,

you may well find some unwelcome surprises about the insurance

you've got on your home, too.

Coming up - what's more shocking,

a 20-foot deep hole suddenly appearing in your back garden

or the almost equally deep pockets you'll need to repair it?

It was a horrible time. I was going to bed crying,

getting up in the morning, looking through the bathroom window, and I

can see the hole. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I was just crying.

And navigating the murky waters of the insurance industry to find

out why homeowners nowhere near water are suddenly being told

they're at greater risk of flooding.

Can I just take you to task on that?

You say that's better for the consumer. No, it's not,

because that means every insurance company can set their own rules.

Now, of all the disasters we worry about what might

affect our homes, the dramatic appearance in the back garden of an

enormous 20-foot deep hole probably isn't going to be one of them.

But that's exactly what happened to Gretel Davidson.

A huge sinkhole, often linked to heavy rain,

arrived from absolutely nowhere in the middle of her lawn.

And while such incidents are still thankfully rare, trying to

put things right has thrown up some facts about her insurance

that might well surprise you about your own home cover as well.

When there are kids around, if there's one place you might

hope they'd be fairly safe, it's in your back garden.

Potential dangers should be pretty limited.

And you certainly wouldn't expect the ground to suddenly open up beneath you.

-Are you Gretel?

-I'm Gretel.

-I'm Gloria.

But in February 2014, the ground DID suddenly open

up in the south-east London garden of Gretel Davidson,

right next to the trampoline her daughter Maya loves to play on.

-Right, so this is where it all happened, Gretel?

-Yeah.

The trampoline was here,

and the hole would just be... Hole's just here.

And then is this is where the hole was, then?

That's right. We mark it by the fence.

The fence is slightly dipped.

So, in actual fact, if Maya had been on the trampoline, the whole thing

could have gone right down, couldn't it?

-And this is actually quite uneven still, isn't it, really?

-Yeah, it is quite uneven.

-So it's settling a bit?

-Yeah, it's

-settling a bit.

-But how did you react when you saw it?

Well, I screamed first of all. I went, "No! Why me?!"

And how big was this hole when you saw it for the first time?

Well, I didn't know how deep it was and how wide it was,

but I had somebody from the council

and he said that it's 20-foot deep and eight-foot wide.

20ft deep?!

-And eight-foot wide.

-Oh, my goodness.

Now, while coming home to find a sinkhole in your garden is,

thank goodness, rare, there was quite a spate of them

this particular winter.

In fact, according to the British Geological Survey, there were

18 instances of sinkholes and similar ground collapses reported

to them in February 2014, a nine-fold increase

in what is regarded as normal.

Sinkholes are a product of erosion in existing underground

cavities, and are linked to periods of high rainfall.

So it is no coincidence that these incidents all

followed what the Met Office described as, "One of the most

exceptional periods of winter rainfall in at least 248 years."

And some geologists predict that as our winters get wetter

we're likely to see more of them.

Let's talk to Maya, because she was the very, very first

one, your daughter was the first one who saw it.

Yeah, she was.

Maya spotted the hole when she returned home from school

and saw it through her bedroom window.

She immediately rang her mum at work at the local hospital.

After trying to calm her daughter down,

Gretel asked for the rest of the day off and headed back to the house.

Meanwhile, Maya followed the natural instinct to take a closer

look at what had happened

As I walked up, I looked down and there was a massive hole,

and I saw two tunnels.

And at that point I was just panicking, cos I didn't know what to do.

-I bet you were scared?

-Yeah. I was scared as well, cos when I saw it I had to jump back

a little bit because I didn't really want to fall in there.

Just thank God that the weather was bad,

cos she could have been jumping on the trampoline

and who knows what could have happened?

Unsure what to do, Gretel called the council, who visited the house

but told her that, because all this had happened on her own property,

they couldn't help, recommending she got in touch with her insurer.

So Gretel called her insurance company, Halifax, who next

day visited the house to inspect and photograph the hole.

The insurance company came and said to me,

"I'm very sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it."

On what grounds?

It was because it was too far away from the house.

It hasn't caused the building any damage.

There's no subsidence or anything like that.

Halifax confirmed all this in a letter which made

clear that the costs of refilling the hole were not

covered by her policy, because damage to garden features is excluded

if there was no damage caused to the house itself at the same time.

I bet you were sinking nearly as low as the hole.

I did everything I possibly can for Halifax to pay,

and they refused to pay. I was just beside myself.

I was very, very, very unhappy and I just started crying because I just

didn't know who to phone, I didn't know who to phone or what to do.

And while a sinkhole is not the usual thing an insurer might have

to deal with, you may be surprised to realise it IS quite

normal for damage to a garden that doesn't affect the house to

be excluded from your home insurance.

Your garden does not come under your buildings

insurance, and it's not something classed as contents, either.

So if anything even remotely similar were to happen in your garden,

chances are you would be stuck with any resulting costs as well.

Because it isn't going to be included in standard home cover.

The only way to avoid those extra costs would be to get some sort

of separate cover for the garden but that's not widely available.

Gretel was left with no choice but to commission a structural

report and employ her own builder to fill in the hole.

So now it's all down to you, how did you cope from a money point of view?

My dad died two years ago

and I had £5,000, which we was going to put

a headstone on my dad's grave, so I had to phone my family up

and say, "Listen, you know, I can't put, I can't use this

"money for the headstone because I've just had a huge sinkhole

"in the back of my garden so I'll just have to use this

"money for that, but that really hurt me because I really, really loved my dad,

"and to know that I had to use that money for, to pay for the

"sinkhole, it had to be paid because I couldn't leave it, but it really,

"really, really, hurt me to know that I had to use that money for that."

In the end, the whole repair cost around £9,000.

It was a horrible time. I was going to bed crying,

getting up in the morning, looking through the bathroom window

and I could see the hole. I just couldn't sleep,

I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I was just crying.

As she'd never have even contemplated

a situation like this could occur. Gretel had had no idea that

her insurance would not cover this kind of eventuality.

And I'll bet most of the rest of us wouldn't have known, either.

The Halifax, though, has reiterated that such incidents, which it

says are "still rare occurrences", are only covered by a policy's

terms "if they cause damage to the insured property".

In Gretel's case, their specialist claims team investigated

thoroughly and were satisfied that the sinkhole posed

"no imminent likely danger to the property".

So without any reason under her policy to pay out, all

they could do was advise Gretel on recommended next steps.

Although it was at her own expense,

the work restoring Gretel's garden is now complete,

so Maya is able once again to trampoline with confidence.

But Gretel remains shocked not just that such an extraordinarily

freakish event ever happened but also that,

when it did, there was nowhere she could turn for help.

This is one of the most obscure things to

-happen in your back garden, that's awful.

-Yeah,

nobody saves up for it.

And it really, really, really hurt, and I was so desperate.

In recent years we've unfortunately become all too familiar with

those shocking pictures of huge swathes of the UK submerged

under flood water following particularly wet weather.

Now, when the owners of many of those homes affected come to

renew their policies they're going to find

they are faced with much higher insurance premiums, but you know,

plenty of other people who didn't see even a drop of water coming

into their property are also being told that their risk of flooding

has gone up as well and that they are going to have to pay more, too.

Now, I know this because it's happened to me. Well, obviously,

I wanted to find out what was going on but I have to tell you,

that has proved a lot harder than you might think.

Our winters seem to be getting wetter.

And for many, that's more than just an inconvenience.

By the end of the heaviest downpour of early 2014,

thousands of homes had been seriously flooded.

In the worst-affected county, Somerset, there was

almost twice the amount of rainfall as in previous years

and it was months before the clean-up was complete.

Insurance companies paid out

£451 million in flood insurance claims.

And as the water levels have risen,

so, too, has the amount that a lot of us pay for our home insurance.

350,000 homes are now classified as at risk from flooding.

And among those apparently facing an increased risk is mine!

Or at least that was what I was surprised to be told

when I came to renew my policy.

And as a result, my premiums would have to go up.

Now, I live in central London,

but I don't live on the banks of the River Thames.

Nor do I live next door to here, which is where the

River Thames is rushing by just over a mile away.

In fact, I live around here, which is

over two miles from the Thames.

So if the river did ever burst its banks,

then it would take quite a large chunk of central London with it,

including the Houses of Parliament,

Buckingham Palace, the Royal Albert Hall,

and half of Kensington before it got anywhere near my house.

As far as I know, my house has never been flooded in the 180 years

since it was built.

So you can understand why I was surprised to suddenly be

told there was now a high risk of that happening.

I'm sure many of you will have been equally puzzled after

suddenly being told something similar by your own insurers.

Which is why I was determined to get to the bottom of how all this

had been worked out.

I asked my broker to go back to the insurance company

and ask for an explanation,

and we received a letter saying I'm not in danger of flooding

from the River Thames at all, but from surface water flooding, which

is apparently what happens when you get an excessive amount of rain that

doesn't drain away, and they sent me a map of this mysterious new threat.

The map DID show that my house, was under threat

from flooding in really heavy rainfall, when the drains

under London might not be able take all the water away quickly enough.

But it was the first I'd heard of it.

And when our team looked into it, searching all the publicly

available information they could find about my home, they couldn't

pinpoint anything to support the insurance company's belief that

my home suddenly faced an increased risk from this type of flooding, either.

So I paid for a Homecheck report, the kind your solicitor will

get when you're buying a house.

That didn't show up a high risk, either.

And when we spoke to the planning department at Kensington

and Chelsea Council they said there was no risk at all!

So what do my insurance company know that the council don't?

I've come to the offices of the Environment Agency.

They've mapped and studied every bit of England and Wales for all

kinds of flood risk, including the one I'd never imagined homes,

including mine, could be under threat from, surface water flooding.

Surface water flooding seems to be one of these subjects

and one of these titles that has crept in,

particularly to insurance policies quite recently.

One of the things about surface water flooding is that it can

happen anywhere.

It can happen miles away from rivers,

so it can happen in places where somebody might not

automatically expect that it would happen.

But we are seeing more of this kind of flooding,

and that's one of the reasons why we've produced these maps

which show areas which are at risk of surface water flooding. We're

trying to make them as good as they can be, and the plan is that

we'll continue to maintain them, that as more information is available

to us that, we'll build that into the maps and make them even better

At the moment, the Environment Agency's maps don't appear to

show my home IS under high risk of surface water flooding.

So does that mean my insurers, and yours, too,

if you've been told the same thing, are wrong?

It's important to remember that there are always

limitations in any maps and that the maps can't be property specific,

they can't show for sure whether a property will or won't flood.

But we do believe that they are the best maps

that are available for all of England and Wales.

So if, as they believe, the Environment Agency has

the best surface water flooding maps available,

you might expect it's these maps the insurance companies

will use to judge whether a house is at risk of flooding.

But, in fact, that's not necessarily the case.

We asked the top ten insurers what maps they use to evaluate

the chances of flooding and calculate insurance premiums.

Three companies didn't bother to respond to us at all.

Another three said they do

use the Environment Agency's maps, but only one uses them exclusively.

The other two use them alongside data

and maps commissioned from private companies.

And the remaining four insurers told us

they don't use the Environment Agency maps at all

because they don't believe they go into enough detail.

So, with most insurance companies using different maps,

next we asked them if they'd be prepared to show those to

customers to help them understand how their policies are calculated.

Of the six who answered, all said no,

telling us this information was "commercially sensitive",

or not in a form that would be meaningful to customers.

So, with no standard map being used across the industry,

and too many insurance companies just unwilling to explain how

they set their premiums,

I'd like to find out what are those decisions that are made when it

comes to deciding the potential flood risk to our properties.

The Association of British Insurers represents

the majority of insurance companies in the UK.

So I've come to meet its head of property, to find out

more about how insurers calculate premiums when it comes to flooding.

How do insurance companies work out flood risk across the country

when they're quoting prices for premiums?

So insurers will take a variety of sources

and information and they'll think that their way of assessing

flood risk is better than the rest of the market

and there'll be a competitive process where insurer A will

try and get a better understanding of flood risk than insurer B.

That means different insurers will have different

views of flood risk, but that's good for customers

as that means you have two insurers who have different views of

flood risk and that allows customers to shop around and use another

insurer who may view them as lower risk than their previous insurer.

Can I take you to task on that?

You say it's better for the consumer. No, it's not,

because that means every insurance company can set their own rules.

Surely the answer in something like this would be for one level point

at which everyone can judge whether or not you are at risk.

Because simply that doesn't exist, there is

no one view of what flood risk is. Nobody can predict

whether a certain place has a 10% chance of flooding and could

flood next year. In a competitive market, insurers are driven

to find the best way of assessing flood risk and some will spend

millions and millions of pounds in trying to understand this and

they do that because it gives them a competitive edge over others who may

spend less investing in flood risk and flood-mapping techniques.

That gives them the ability to price more accurately in their view, and gives

them the ability to win business and offer price at an appropriate level.

If you're unsure how your premium is calculated, you can

always ask your insurer to tell you.

When I asked mine to explain the rise in premiums,

they did ultimately tell me how they'd worked it out.

And while I don't agree with their assessment,

it does go to show that insurers WILL open up to customers.

In the end, they reduced my premium,

but if the house ever does flood. I will have to pay an excess

of £2,500 on any claim for flood damage.

When the Rip Off team spoke to my insurers,

they were told that the company "specialises in analysing,

"understanding, and appropriately pricing risk for its customers"

and that, like all insurance providers, it uses an

"experienced team of specialist underwriters" using "the most

"accurate and up-to-date information available" to assess that risk.

They said that they are "obliged to charge an appropriate premium"

to reflect the risk each property presents.

Still, at least I've been able to get cover in the unlikely

event my house does flood.

But I'm afraid that is not the case for everyone who's

classed as being at risk.

Later in the programme we'll head to the town where MILLIONS has

been spent on new flood defences, but some residents are still

struggling to get any flood insurance at all.

We thought because we are now at a lesser risk of flooding,

that would be fine with the insurance companies.

But unfortunately that's not the reality.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain,

if your home is damaged in a storm, why your insurer could

say it's you that has to pay to pick up the pieces.

-We were absolutely gutted.

-Shell-shocked.

It is just a terribly sad

and devastating situation to find oneself in.

So many of you get in touch with us

throughout the year by letter by e-mail, but you know our pop-up

shop is the perfect way for us to be able to meet you face-to-face,

so that we can give you all the advice you need and hopefully

answers to some of those questions that are driving you mad!

Jo Youen came into our pop-up shop to see if trading standards expert

Sylvia Rook could help her with an ongoing problem with her caravan.

I bought a brand-new caravan five years ago

and unfortunately we've had continuous problems with the

window leaking and I don't know what to do or how to get it resolved.

So when did the fault first show itself?

We started to see a misting in the window about

six months into using the caravan.

and on our first annual service, the dealer mentioned that they

were having to replace the window because the material wasn't strong

-enough. We arranged through warranty to have it repaired.

-Had the

dealer actually replaced the whole window unit or had he just sealed

-round it?

-No, they replaced, we had a brand-new window.

We stored it over winter, as we normally do, and we noticed mould inside the caravan.

Oh, that's not good.

The dealer said, "We've had a few people say that. Have you got any hairline cracks on the outside

"of the front of the caravan?" We had about eight. They then had

to put a claim through warranty for a whole new front and another window.

The dealer then decided the job was too complicated,

so referred it to the manufacturer, who replaced

the front of the caravan and the problematic window.

But that wasn't the end of it.

We noticed the window leaked.

-Still - the same window?

-This was the third window we had.

Have you been back to the dealer you bought it from?

-They've unfortunately gone into administration.

-Have you gone back to the manufacturer?

-I have.

-And what have they said?

-Well, they're telling me that my contract

-isn't with them and it was with the dealer. However, they have said they'll replace the window.

-Again.

-Again.

-You're in

a very difficult position. You've got a small claim against the manufacturer

for the work that they did. I think it's going to be about trying to get

some sort of goodwill gesture from the manufacturer and say," I didn't

"have a contract with you but it's you that made this and clearly it

"can't be fixed so what can you do to help me?" The other thing

you can do is go back and see if they'll extend the warranty because

of the fact that you've had problems all the way down the line, see

if they will extend the warranty to cover these issues until the matter

-can get sorted.

-So, as part of the gesture of goodwill, I could

-maybe add that in.

-If you don't ask, you won't get it at all.

If you do ask, there's a chance you might. It's always worth trying.

It wouldn't be Rip Off Britain's pop-up shop without our gripe corner

where people can go

and let off steam about things that get their blood boiling.

And you certainly were not holding back!

Give the working man a chance - we're paying too much for fuel

prices. Ten years ago we were paying half the amount, it's not fair.

It's really difficult to get a hotel room to fit the five of us, so we

have to get ripped off and pay the price for two rooms.

What really annoys me is PPI calls, there's no need for it.

BOTH: Stop calling me, it's rude!

Now, when it comes to bad weather, you might think it's pretty

obvious what constitutes a storm.

Howling gale, pouring rain, maybe even thunder and lightning.

But in fact, when it comes to insurance, it's rather more complicated.

And that can have big repercussions if you're making

an claim for anything that you think was damaged in a storm.

Around half of all complaints about buildings insurance

come down to disputes resulting from bad weather.

Not just because insurers aren't convinced that the weather

was to blame for any damage.

But often because they don't even agree that the weather was

that bad in the first place.

So when is a storm not a storm?

Well, batten down the hatches, for some homeowners,

this has been a very bumpy ride.

When Janet Tipper and her husband, Doug, moved to this pretty Devonshire

farmhouse in 1987, they knew it had been built using the traditional

West Country building techniques of more than 300 years ago.

The cob's about three-foot thick here.

As the house had been made with old-fashioned cob walls, it meant

if anything were to happen, repairs would be far from straightforward.

We knew it would be a big job, and a difficult job because it is a

specialist area, not everybody can deal with this sort of structure.

With protecting the authenticity of the house so very important,

Janet took out a policy underwritten by the Co-Operative Insurance,

and was confident that she'd done what

she could in case the worst should happen.

Unfortunately, on the 3rd January, 2012, it did.

There are a number of Met Office warnings in force, one of them

due to the strength of the wind.

It was just a tremendous storm, wasn't it?

There was slates coming off the roof over there, and it

was just a horrendous storm.

When I woke up, I drew the curtains back, and I looked out

and I saw a whole load of rubble on the drive and I thought, "Oh, my God!"

As a result of the pounding delivered by the storm,

a whole section of the cob wall on the front of the house had

just crumbled away, falling onto their porch.

And the roof had some minor damage, too.

We knew the cause of this problem was the storm

because the storm had raged all night.

Janet immediately contacted her broker,

and on their advice, arranged for a local contractor to cover up

the damage in order to prevent it from getting worse.

Two days later, the insurers sent round a loss adjuster to

inspect the property.

But the couple were astonished by what she had to say.

She said there was no storm, which was a complete bombshell.

We were absolutely shocked.

She picked up a weather programme on her computer

that apparently insurers use, and was trying to say that this

did not record a storm, and we were just baffled.

She said, "If your roof was damaged, or because yours

"is an old house, the insurers wouldn't pay."

And I said, "What are you taking our money for?"

Assessing the severity of bad weather isn't

quite as simple as you might think.

To determine if it's bad enough to be classed as a storm,

insurers will often rely on what's called the Beaufort Scale,

an officially recognised measure of wind speed that became

standard in the 19th century.

But even though it was widely reported that severe weather

had hit the entire west coast of the country at that time,

the loss adjuster simply wasn't convinced that it was

the cause of the damage to the house.

So, although the insurer DID agree to repair

some of the damage to the porch they refused to pay out for by

far the most significant part of the claim, the repair of the cob wall.

We were absolutely gutted.

Shell-shocked.

It is just a terribly sad

and devastating situation to find oneself in.

In the weeks that followed, as the couple protested,

the insurers did accept that there had been a storm in the area.

But they still didn't agree that the weather had caused the damage,

which, instead, they put down to lack of maintenance leading

to wear and tear.

The couple were horrified, not least because it left them having to

shoulder the cost of repairs, which totalled around £21,000.

Your whole world has fallen apart

because what you've paid in insurance for to protect what

you own is just not doing what it's promised.

Both retired from work, Janet

and Doug didn't have enough savings to cover the cost of the repairs,

and nor were they able to get any sort of loan that could help.

The only solution was to sell their much-loved holiday home

in France, where they had planned to spend much of their retirement.

They were heartbroken.

But on top of that, they remained convinced that they hadn't

been treated fairly.

And Janet wasn't prepared to take that lying down.

Unfortunately for the insurers, we're made of quite tough metal,

and I was not going to let them get away with it.

Janet decided to take their case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The adjudicator, after a lot of negotiation with Co-op

Insurance, but eventually,

he awarded fully in our favour.

In fact, not only did the adjudicator say

the Co-op should stump up for the repair bill,

but they also recommended compensation for the couple

because of the stress of having to sell their French home.

But the insurer didn't accept this decision.

So the whole sorry saga rumbled on a lot longer.

It went through the full Ombudsman

and then was awarded fully in our favour,

plus 8% interest

and £250 for the stress involved.

It was a great result for the couple,

but all told, it took more than two years

after the storm that caused the damage for the insurers to pay out.

Sadly, such disputes are not unusual.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says disagreements with insurers

over damage caused by weather are all too common.

We get around 350 building insurance complaints every month.

And a lot of those come down to how we define bad weather.

Storm is a pretty ambiguous term

and insurers shouldn't rely on vague definitions to not pay claims.

If all the evidence suggests that the damage isn't wear and tear,

then we would expect the insurer to be realistic, reasonable and pay up.

So, what should you do if a dispute with your insurer

over the weather causes a storm all of its own?

First things first, don't panic.

It's not down to you to have to prove

whether a serious weather event took place or not.

All that matters to the insurer

will be what you can remember about the time the storm took place.

So jot down everything you can recall.

Maybe the time you first started noticing the wind was playing up.

Also, speak to your neighbours.

If you've been affected by a storm, chances are they have been, too.

And that kind of evidence can really support your claim.

We contacted Co-operative Insurance to find out why it took so long

for Janet and Doug to have their claim resolved.

They told us they were truly sorry for the difficulties and delays

the couple experienced,

but stressed that they do not turn down claims lightly

and that this individual case is in no way indicative

of the high standards they aim for.

They felt a full review was necessary

after the Ombudsman's initial decision

due to the differences in opinion

between the loss adjustor's findings

and the evidence provided by Janet and Doug.

And while they say the timescale of that was out of their control,

they're sorry for the additional inconvenience

and distress this caused.

But Janet and Doug remain bitter

that it took almost two years of fighting

to get the payout they never doubted they were due.

The whole experience has just been devastating.

But I was determined to battle as far as I could and get justice,

which I finally feel I did.

We've put together an absolutely free booklet of tips

and advice to help safeguard your hard-earned cash.

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You can also find on the website lots more information

on the topics we tackle on the programme

with plenty of tips on how to save money and, most importantly,

how to avoid being caught out.

Earlier in the programme, I went on something of a mission

to discover why my home and perhaps yours, too,

had suddenly been re-categorised as being at risk of flooding.

And how that would dramatically drive up my insurance premiums.

But that's small fry compared to the costs facing those people

whose homes have a really high risk of flooding,

or indeed, have been flooded in the past.

The devastating flood that hit residents

of Cockermouth in Cumbria in 2009 was the third in four years.

But it was the worst of them all,

destroying homes and businesses throughout the town.

It was deeper than me.

It was about halfway up the top part of those windows there.

The town centre was submerged under 2.5 metres of floodwater.

Over 900 properties were affected

and around 200 people had to be rescued by the emergency services.

All the time, you keep thinking, it's going to stop.

It didn't, it kept coming.

The water level actually ended up just at the top of the...

Well, just at about this height.

I'm not the toughest guy in the world, but it made me cry.

Some locals, like Sue Cashmore,

had only just recovered from the flood of the previous year.

But this one was much worse.

The house flooded for the third time in 2009.

November 19th, 2009.

The date always stays engraved in your memory.

We went upstairs, but then the water

just kept coming and coming and coming.

And we finally ended up with about seven foot of water in the house.

After 18 hours of being trapped on the first floor,

Sue and her daughters were rescued.

We climbed out of the bedroom window, into the boat.

Seeing them leave their home, which is meant to be their area of security,

in a boat, that kind of really pulls at the heartstrings, and still does to this day.

Sue and her family were taken to an evacuation centre.

But having been through all of this before, Sue knew that in some ways

the worst was yet to come.

I can remember walking in and looking at the people and just saying to somebody,

"These people have no idea the hell they're about to go through."

Because I knew that the next year of their life would be hell.

People think if you're insured, "Oh, it's no problem, you've been flooded, you're insured."

"Not a problem, you just get everything new."

That is not the way it is at all, you've got to fight for everything to get it back.

Sue's insurance did pay for the repairs she needed, but her parents,

who live 100 yards away, were in a very different situation.

They too had been flooded twice before, but this time

they simply could not afford to claim on their insurance.

As bad as you thought or about what you think, you thought it would be?

Yeah?

Worse than what I thought it would be.

The insurance excess Sue's parents would have to pay

for any flood-related claim was a whopping £20,000.

Meaning that they simply could not afford for their insurer to repair the damage.

The community pulled together to get Cockermouth back on its feet,

and a charity was set up to donate furniture to those in need, including Sue's parents.

For a man who's worked all his life to get his home and to provide for his family

to now be sitting on second-hand furniture is very, very difficult for him.

He does find that very, very hard.

With floods so regularly damaging the town, it was clear that

something had to be done to stop the same thing happening again.

Residents successfully campaigned to have flood defences built,

with some of the money raised through extra council tax.

So it took us about 18 months to 2 years, working with the Environment Agency in partnership.

Negotiation, raising money as a town.

We had a 4.4 million flood defence put in.

It does give you some piece of mind.

It just makes things a lot better that you've got that there.

But even with this new state-of-the-art protection,

some residents still can't get affordable insurance against floods.

Including Sue.

My premium was about £30-£40 when I started out, it then went up to £90-odd a month.

And then last year they put the premium up to £200 a month.

I'm a single parent with two daughters who are at university,

I can't afford to pay £200 a month so I had to make that really difficult decision

that I couldn't afford that insurance,

Part of the reason that Sue's premiums are so high is

because although the town's new flood defences will protect against river water,

they can't protect against surface water flooding.

As Sue's parents found last Christmas, when they were flooded yet again.

This time because the drains, some of which date back to the Victorian times,

could not handle the amount of rain.

The drain was either blocked, broken or inadequate.

That's what we found out here. They were blocked. We had them all cleaned and whatever.

On the night Mum and Dad were flooded, what we found was all the gullies were full,

and we actually had mountain rescue and other people down here,

digging the drains out to get it working again.

Once again, Sue's parents could not afford to pay the £20,000

their insurer would charge to repair the flood damage.

Both they, and of course Sue, who no longer feels that she can afford to get insurance at all,

feel they're in a lose-lose situation, and one they simply can't escape by selling up.

Unless I really drop it down to a ridiculous amount and lose a lot of money,

I cannot sell my house.

Fortunately, things are set to improve.

Recognising that those who need flood cover the most

are finding themselves priced out of being able to get it,

the industry, along with the Government and the Environment Agency, has come up with a solution.

A new scheme called Flood Re,

is being introduced that will make sure every one of us,

regardless of whether our house is at risk of flooding or not, pay an extra £10.50 on our home insurance.

That money will then go into a pot that will be used to

insure the insurers against big payouts for flood plains.

The insurance industry is confident that as a result, they should be

able to offer flood cover to people like Sue at a level they are able to pay.

Flood Re is there to solve the issue of affordable flood cover

for those 2% of people who live in areas at risk of flooding

and who would be unable to find affordable cover in the future.

And when is this going to come into effect?

At the moment we are anticipating that will come into effect in July 2015.

But it is worth underlining that this is a very complex project, it is a world first.

It is something that requires an unprecedented level of government and industry partnership.

But though the planned scheme is good news, people

like Sue and her parents are still left exposed, and unprotected until it comes in.

What are those people in that position at the moment supposed to do

if they believe they are in an area of high flood risk,

the insurance premium is so high that they can't afford it?

Do they just risk it and go without?

What they can do is, first of all, find a local broker who specialises in flood risk.

The second step is to go on to the website of the British Insurance Brokers Association,

they have a find a broker service.

And within that service they have brokers again

that specialise in people who live in areas at risk of flooding.

But it is not a long-term solution, and that is why we are trying to bring in Flood Re.

And for Sue and others like her, that can't come soon enough.

Every time it rains I'm thinking, "I hope I don't flood, what am I going to do if I flood?"

"How on earth am I going to survive?"

I don't have enough money to spend thousands on getting a house turned around.

Here at Rip Off Britain we are always ready to investigate more of your stories.

And we'd especially like to hear from you if you've had a problem on holiday

or while travelling at home or abroad.

So if you feel let down by your airline,

disappointed that the hotel looked very different from the glossy pictures in the brochure,

or maybe you're angry about hidden charges that weren't clear when you booked.

You can write to us at:

Or send us an e-mail to:

The Rip Off Team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

As you know, it is almost impossible to predict how much damage

a storm or week after week of rain will cause.

Especially if as in the case of Gretel's massive sink hole,

all that activity is happening deep underground, long before the signs

actually show on the surface.

And it is at times like these that we really do rely on our insurers for help.

And thanks to Britain's notoriously unreliable weather

and the fact that some experts say we're likely to see

even more sudden dramatic downpours in the future,

chances are we're going to need to rely on insurers a lot more in the coming years and decades.

So it really pays to make sure you are properly covered

and you've read the small print to make sure that, whatever happens,

you won't have to foot the bill to put it all right.

Well, on that familiar note,

it is time to say goodbye for now. But we'll be back very soon

-to look into more of your stories, so, till then, from all the team, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.