Insurance companies wrongfully using OPW flood maps to increase premiums

Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has been contacted by a number of constituents who have been informed by their insurance providers that they are now facing premium increases of up to 400% on the basis that their residential properties are listed on the OPW’s National Indicative Fluvial Mapping (NIFM).

This comes despite confirmation the TD has received from the Minister of State for the OPW Kevin Boxer Moran that the NIFM only provide an indication of areas that may be liable to flooding and are not suitable to assess the flood risk associated with individual properties or point locations, or to replace a detailed site-specific flood risk assessment.

The OPW has also confirmed to Deputy Nolan that while the OPW has no plans at this time to update these indicative flood maps, the Disclaimer and Conditions for Use of OPW flood maps includes a provision that users of the website must not use the flood maps, or any other content of the website for commercial purposes.

As such, the Disclaimer prevents insurance companies from using the flood maps generated by the OPW:

“This is a profoundly distressing issue for the Offaly home owners who have contacted me. Some of them have been told that their residential premiums will now rise from €600 to over €3000 and all on the basis of OPW maps that the insurance companies are prohibited from using in this way and despite the fact that the homes in question have never flooded at any point over the last 50 years or more,” said Deputy Nolan.

“Insurance Ireland has apparently highlighted to the OPW that it does not use the OPW flood maps to inform its flood modelling and the decision on whether to offer insurance, the level of premiums charged, and the policy terms applied are matters for individual insurers.”

“But that rule is clearly being flouted and people are being fleeced because of it.”

 “When my constituents challenged their insurance providers on the 400% increase they were specifically told that this was because they had classified the property as high risk solely based on the OPW’s flood maps.”

“I am calling for an urgent investigation into this matter so we can establish how widespread this problem is.”

“I will certainly be raising the issue directly with the Department of Finance who have policy responsibility for flood insurance reform. Government must intervene and demand accountability from individual providers.

“insurance companies cannot and should treat the OPW flood maps as if they were some kind of treasure map that can be used to source and extract exorbitant and unjustifiable premium increases from struggling homeowners,” concluded Deputy Nolan.