What your policy covers — and what it does not
Every policy wording is different, and the schedule and endorsements matter as much as the booklet. But across the household and commercial policies sold in Ireland the pattern is consistent enough to say this much:
Usually covered
- Water entering from rivers, the sea, surface run-off and rising ground water, where flood cover is held
- Stripping out and disposal of contaminated materials
- Cleaning, sanitising and professional drying
- Reinstatement of floors, walls, kitchens, electrics
- Contents and white goods
- Alternative accommodation, often for months
Usually excluded or argued
- Flood, where the policy carries a flood exclusion for the address
- Water entering through a defect the insurer can call maintenance
- Gradual ingress and rising damp
- Outbuildings, fences and gardens on many policies
- Losses above the sum insured — average may apply
The line between the two columns is exactly where a claim is won or lost, and it is drawn by the wording, the survey evidence and the argument — not by the insurer’s first letter.
The first 48 hours after flood damage
What is done — and not done — in the first two days decides how much evidence exists later. In order:
Stay out of the water until it is safe
Contaminated flood water and live electrics. Nothing on this page is worth an injury.
Photograph the water at its height
The level on the walls, the source it came from, the street outside. Once it recedes, the cause becomes an argument.
Record the source
River over its banks, tide, a drain surcharging, run-off from higher ground — which one it was can decide the claim. Note what you saw and when.
Do not strip out until it is recorded
Make safe, photograph, then strip. The insurer will assess from your record if theirs is late.
Ring us before you ring the insurer
If your policy has a flood exclusion or a high flood excess, how the loss is described matters. Read the policy first.
Keep every receipt
Pumps, skips, cleaning, accommodation. All of it is part of the claim.
How the insurer will assess the claim
Before the damage is looked at, the policy is. If the address is in a known flood-risk area the policy may exclude flood entirely, carry a high flood excess, or define flood narrowly. Under the memorandum of understanding between the OPW and Insurance Ireland, insurers receive information on completed flood relief schemes so that cover can be offered behind them — but whether your policy actually provides it is a matter of wording, and we read it before anything else.
Where cover exists, the argument moves to extent and drying. A flooded property takes longer to dry than any first offer assumes, contaminated materials have to go rather than be cleaned, and contents losses are always larger once the schedule is done properly.
Under the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code your insurer must keep you informed of developments within 10 working days, tell you its decision within 5 working days of making it, and give written reasons if it does not settle in your favour.
Why flood damage claims get reduced or refused
These are the four positions we meet most often on this type of claim, what each one really means, and how it is answered.
“This is surface water, not flood.” — or the reverse
What it means: The insurer is fitting the loss into whichever definition pays least.
Our answer: We establish the actual mechanism of ingress from the evidence and the site, and put it against the policy’s own definitions.
“Your policy excludes flood.”
What it means: Sometimes true; sometimes the exclusion is narrower than the letter suggests.
Our answer: We read the exclusion, its definitions and any endorsements, and test whether this loss falls inside it.
“The property is dry.”
What it means: Surface readings on a building that is wet underneath.
Our answer: Substrate moisture readings before reinstatement, and a drying scope that reflects the construction.
“The kitchen can be cleaned.”
What it means: Contaminated flood water in chipboard carcasses cannot be cleaned.
Our answer: Where flood water has been through porous materials they are scheduled for replacement, and we evidence why.
If the insurer’s final response is wrong, the complaint goes to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman — free to you, and taken more seriously when the claim file is already properly documented.
What a proper settlement includes
A settlement is a schedule of every head of loss the policy responds to, priced at what it will actually cost to put right — not the first figure offered. On a claim like this that schedule should cover:
- Pumping out, cleaning and sanitising
- Stripping out and disposal of contaminated materials
- Professional drying to confirmed readings
- Reinstatement of floors, walls, kitchens and services
- Contents and white goods at the policy basis
- Alternative accommodation for the full period
- Resilient reinstatement where the policy allows it
- Professional fees where covered
Our fee. No charge for the initial consultation. Our standard fee is 10% + V.A.T. of the settlement agreed, with a minimum fee explained before any work starts. The fee is agreed with you before any work begins.
Flood damage claims across Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Cavan and Dublin
We work from two offices — Irish Grange, Carlingford, Co. Louth and Main Street, Blanchardstown, Dublin — and we are on site fastest across Louth (Dundalk, Drogheda, Ardee, Carlingford), Meath, Monaghan, Cavan, Dublin (Swords, Blanchardstown) and Kildare.
Storm Chandra in January 2026 put water into homes in the Bay Estate in Dundalk, in Blackrock South, in Drogheda, Baltray, Ardee and Carlingford — and the OPW schemes now planned for Dundalk and Blackrock South, for Drogheda and Baltray and for Ardee are years from complete. Dundalk sits on the Castletown River and Dundalk Bay, and has flooded in 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2020. If you are insured for flood in Louth, know exactly what the policy says before the next one.
Outside those counties, ring us anyway — on a serious claim the survey and the policy argument matter far more than the drive. Every area we cover.