House insurance bills expected to rise

HOME insurance costs for householders are expected to rise over the coming year as claims made as a result of the two recent periods of severe winter weather could exceed €500 million.

The Irish Insurance Federation has predicted that the cost of settling claims out of last month’s big freeze will exceed the €245m bill which resulted from flooding in certain parts of the country last November.

The federation’s chief executive, Michael Kemp, told the Oireachtas Committee yesterday that the two events were “the two single most expensive weather losses in the history of the Irish market”.

He said the claims cost of €500m represented more than 60% of annual net income from property insurance premiums.

“We have yet to finalise a figure for the claims arising from the freezing weather in early January but it is likely that the total cost of the burst pipe and tank claims arising from the freeze will be of the same order or could well exceed the cost of the floods.”

However, Mr Kemp said that household insurance prices had only risen by about 6% since 2003.