Flood Insurance For House

[Dork]

Does anyone know whether a typical home "Fire Insurance" policy in Bangkok typically includes or excludes damage to the house caused by flooding. Previously I had assumed that it was excluded. However from googling the limited info I can find in English, I am now not so sure.

My policy document only contains limited detail and the insurance company doesn't answer the phone today.

I guess the devil will be in the fineprint but just would like to know what is typical.

Cheers

[thrilled]

After all of this,I will be surprised if anyone will be able to buy flood insurance.If so the premiums will be so highnoone will be able to afford it.

[culicine]

I just found out we have insurance through our lender (SCB). Thar will cover the structure of the house, paint, tiles etc. But funnily enough, not the wall paper! And furniture isn't covered, of course.

[aussiebebe]

I received excellent advice from others on this forum about home insurance when I used to rent a house in Bangkok. I checked several policies, none covered flooding - or anything else anyone would reasonably ever claim for. I bought a policy from MSIG. I'd be interested if any policies covering flooding even existed, it would rack the premiums way, way up. While renting, we had minor flooding on one occasion caused by rainwater and all I remember think was 'Thank God this isn't my house...' the walls soaked up all the filthy water, wood and doors warped and paint peeled.

Since buying a condo, I bought a 'condo care' policy from the same MSIG rep, and it's similarly evasive. Of course, no flooding risk in a condo, but other oddities include not covering the windows, as in a condo, the building is owned and insured by the juristic person.

[Soboringtochooseaname]

So lucky that all there people buying a house on loan have insurance because it's an obligation from the bank !!!

But I wonder how many Thai who have no clue/interest/brain/money about what is an insurance for won't be covered for the disaster.

Say thank you to your bank if you wouldn't be smart enough to pay for an insurance...

[chiangmaibruce]

I think ours is a typical home policy and no, it doesn't include flooding ... so i'm mighty glad we only had water in the house for two days not two months! and we had enough time to get everything upstairs.

[aussiebebe]

So lucky that all there people buying a house on loan have insurance because it's an obligation from the bank !!!

But I wonder how many Thai who have no clue/interest/brain/money about what is an insurance for won't be covered for the disaster.

Say thank you to your bank if you wouldn't be smart enough to pay for an insurance...

Home insurance is quite good value in Thailand, but few Thais have it. I got a policy when I rented after being quite shocked that the house's owner had no policy in place and I would potentially have been liable for any damages to the property.

[topt]

This is probably not very helpful to the OP but just really for information perhaps for others. I took out a full home policy with NZI via AA Insurance last year and it covers flooding - but i am in Pattaya - including damage caused by Tsunami's!

I am not sure whether anybody in BKK could now take out this policy...

[Dork]

Thanks for all the replies. My policy is also with NZI but I have now had it confirmed that flood damage is not covered. My policy is just for the house, not all risk & contents so that could be the difference. To be fair, since my house is right on (or now actually in) the Chao Phraya, I wouldn't want to insure it against flooding either.

[Pib]

As FYI and according to an English version of the AXA Smart Home policy it covers flooding. to Quote, the covered perils are: "Fire, Lighting, Earthquake, Explosion, Falling Aircraft, Flood, Smoke, Vehicle Impact, Windstorm or Tempest."

I didn't signup for this policy (or any home policy) when we bought our two story home so I can't confirm the mentioned policy indeeds covers flooding...just passing along the info that was in the English version provided to me by my insurance broker. The broker spoke highly of AXA Home insurance in terms of coverage in comparison to other insurance companies. Just FYI.

If the water continues to go down around my home in Khet TalingChan I'm probably going to have some wallpaper damage around floor level at the carport entrance door area. I evacuated the home 11 days ago when the water level was almost 1 meter deep in my moobaan. I made one visit back to the home on 5 Nov/last Saturday to see first hand the situation which was 1 to 1.5 meters(referenced to road level) of water everywhere in the moobaan. Forturnately, since my yard/house foundation is elevated approx 1 meter above road level, the water only entered my home's carport entrance door area and my downstairs bathroom to a height of around 4-6 inches. This 4-6 inches covered a white wood strip about 4 inches high (it shouldn't be damaged)and then got the bottom few inches of the wall paper. This entrance area/bathroom is two steps (approx 1 ft) lower than the main 1st floor of my house. I'm thinking my damage will be limited to the submerged carport iron gate opener (I'll dry it out good and see if the motor/electronics might continue to work at least for a while), submerged plants around the yard/yard wall, and the lower few inches of the wallpaper in the house carport entrance door area.

If my wallpaper is discolored/dirty on the bottom few inches and can't be cleaned-up, I won't change the wallpaper but just apply this roll-on/stick-on wallpaper type material you can buy at HomePro which comes in 5 meter long, approx 5 inch wide rolls in different designs/colors. Primarily used to add design to a room wall at whatever level you want to apply the 5 inch wide strip. It only costs around 200 baht per roll with peel-off application backing. Oh yea, I'll be planting a lot of new plants around the fence wall as the dirty water has killed various plants/flowers....oh well, most plants/flowers are cheap in Thailand.

Could have been much worst for me if the water had risen only a foot higher or my house foundation/yard was not approx 1 meter above road level. Hopefully the water will not rise anymore and continue the slow drop which has been around a inch or so per day for the last few days according to calls to neighbors toughing it out in the moobaan. Fingers crossed no canal dike/bank breaks and the water level continues to drop...I figure it's still touch-and-go "water level height-wise" for another week in certain areas of western Bangkok as the flood waters continue their flow through Bangkok to the sea. I don't expect I can return again for another two weeks when the water level will have hopefuly dropped to less than knee deep and cars can once again travel the soi's of my moobaan; right now only boats are traveling around the moobaan. Floods suck.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Pib, re your post above about AXA's home policy, I've had an AXA home policy on my rented home for the past couple years, but never had to file any claim about it.

My AXA policy was up for renewal this month, and my Thai insurance broker just informed me that AXA isn't renewing any of those existing home policies or writing any new ones because of the Thailand flooding.

According to my broker, the market for home insurance in Thailand may be heading for serious trouble, because although the policies are written with local Thai companies, those same companies are actually covering themselves largely with reinsurance from non-Thailand large insurance companies. And a lot of those companies supposedly aren't renewing their re-insurance agreements for Thailand right now.

I've got a second floor unit, so I've never really cared about flooding just in terms of insurance coverage. I just wanted contents insurance for my belongings and liability insurance, to protect me in the event there was ever a problem in my rented home. But my agent indicated at least for this coming year, AXA isn't doing any home policies period.

And re MSIG, my broker at first also said MSIG wasn't writing any new home policies... But I wasn't sure about that... And so I called MSIG, got an English speaking rep there, and it sounds like they are still writing new policies if you go direct thru MSIG... but they may not be writing new home policies thru 3rd-party insurance brokers.

MSIG sent me a quotation and policy summary via e-mail that had both English and Thai language versions. But there were several areas that just weren't clear in the English version. So I emailed back to the MSIG rep who'd send the info to me... And two days have now passed, and no response back from them with any clarification... Hmmm.

At the moment, it's looking like I'll be getting a new policy for contents, liability, and accident through a consortium that goes by various names -- Safety Insurance (a longtime Thai company), IAG insurance and NZI insurance. From talking to my broker, it sounds like Safety is a longtime Thai company that got bought out/taken over along the way by IAG/NZI.

It's looking like it will be around 5,500 baht for one year, including 1 million baht contents coverage with a 3,000 baht deductible, 5 million baht worldwide liability coverage and 250,000 baht accidental death/dismemberment coverage. I didn't need to have structural/building coverage, because I'm not the building owner. But from what I gather, the company has a minimum required premium of 5,000 baht on their policies.

Curiously, my quote sheet from Safety/IAG/NZI included an asterisked mention of 1,000 baht coverage for flooding.... And I looked at that, and said, <deleted>??? So I asked my broker, and she explained that in order for a Thai insurance policy to be classified as "all-risks," they had to offer some component of flood coverage. So instead of offering none, they coughed up a paltry 1,000 flood coverage amount. But as I said above, that coverage is pretty much irrelevant to me in my case.

I got a second quote from an arm of LMG that also included the 1 million baht contents coverage and various other lesser things for about 3,000 baht per year. But it pretty much included no liability coverage, so it wasn't of much value for me. If I was an owner like for a condo, then they could/would have insured my structure. But apparently no option to add on liability for those of us who are renters.

I should add, I live in a 5-story building that's owned and occupied entirely by one very nice Thai family, mostly Thai government related, with the exception of our standalone unit on the second floor. Each other floor is occupied by different generations of the same family, grandparents, adult kids, college age kids of the adult kids... And when I checked with them originally, they didn't have any insurance coverage for their own building/home. My broker tried to interest them in taking out coverage for themselves, but they weren't interested. Go figure.

Edited December 24, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

John,

Good info...I'm not surprised Thai insurance companies are changing the rules/policy coverage. I'll also PM you the broker I use here in Bangkok. I only use them for my auto insurance but when I was thinking about getting some home insurance a year or so ago they did a great job in providing me info for evaulation...and the Thai broker lady I deal with speaks/writes great English so you shouldn't have any communications issues...in fact, almost all of my commuications with the broker has been via email....just a few phone calls.

Happy Holidays,

Pib

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Indeed, it turns out Pib and I both use the same Thai insurance broker based here in BKK, and we both think very highly of her work and service. Although we found her separately and didn't even know before today that we were both using the same broker.

If anyone's looking for a good broker, PM Pib or I and we'd be happy to pass along the contact details. As Pib notes above, among her other good qualities, her English skills are excellent for a Thai.