FLOODING: Delays in insurance payouts ‘a disgrace’ says Cork victim

Flood victims have hit out at delays processing their insurance claims.

Aisling McCoy, who has been living with her family in a hotel since their home in Copper Valley Vue, Glanmire, Co Cork, was destroyed by floods last week, said she and her neighbours could be waiting weeks for an insurance payout after red-tape issues emerged.

Her home was one of eight in the estate which were destroyed in a flash flood caused by surface run-off from the estate’s entrance road on December 29.

Aisling McAvoy gets a helping hand while cleaning the kitchen floor of her home in Glanmire. She says families in the estate could be waiting weeks for an insurance payout due to red tape.

However, it is understood that an assessor’s report highlighted how the homes are close to a stream even though it had no role in the flood.

“Our company has now sent our claim to an underwriter to examine, and that’s stalled everything,” said Ms McCoy.

“We can’t get incremental payments now, we can’t get any work started until we know where we stand. How can we do anything until we get an answer as to whether we’re covered or not?

“We are being pushed from pillar to post and have been told it could take two days, it could take two weeks — they just don’t know. We’re not asking for something for nothing.

“We paid our house insurance for 15 years and have been with this company for the last six years. We even have our two cars insured with them. We never flooded before and have never claimed on our insurance for anything. And now when we need it, we can’t get it.

“Rather than paying them, we should have put that money in to a savings account so that we could use it now.”

She said several neighbours are experiencing similar difficulties with insurance companies.

Cork Sinn Féin city councillor Tom Gould branded their treatment by the insurance companies “a disgrace”.

Dominick and Aisling McAvoy and their children Dylan, 11, Lauren, 8, and Liana, 4, outside their flood damaged home in Copper Valley Vue, Glanmire, Co, Cork. Picture: Denis Scannell

He also said he is concerned the insurance companies may try to use the proximity of the stream — through it didn’t cause last week’s flood — to wriggle out of paying out.

“These families have gone through enough fighting off floods. They shouldn’t have to go through this kind of stress,” he said.

“When you give a person flood cover, that should be it. Yet, a week after this disaster, people are in limbo. The one time these people need assistance from their insurance company, they are facing this difficulty. And now, they don’t know where they stand.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is due to tackle the insurance industry over a range of issues linked to flood cover at a meeting next week.