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A Christmas never to be forgotten

September 20, 2017

Jennie Ludford, one of Flood Re’s Local Heroes judges shares NFU Mutual’s experience of the floods that hit in 2007:

Rural insurer NFU Mutual was on hand to help ease the burden for those policyholders that were unable to celebrate Christmas in their own homes the year of the 2007 flood devastation.

The process of drying out a property and appointing builders and surveyors can take a long time.  Although we had our Claims Inspectors on the ground since the day the floods hit and we ran a co-ordinated response with our loss adjusters, the level of damage to some of our policyholders’ homes was unprecedented.  Unfortunately, this meant that some were not be able to move back into their homes until well into 2008.

To help relieve the discomfort, we gave an ex gratia payment to each family, whether this covered the costs for Christmas lunch in a local restaurant or a night in a hotel.  We looked at everyone’s circumstances on a case-by-case basis and agreed a solution appropriate for each family depending on their true need and support networks.

Each policy holder that was still living in temporary accommodation was personally visited by one of our local Agents or Claims Inspectors to talk through their situation and they were then further assessed as to how NFU Mutual could ease the burden over the Christmas period.

Feedback on the ground, proved that this personal gesture went some way to ensuring our customers had a happier Christmas than they might otherwise have had.

NFU Mutual received over 5,000 claims at an estimated cost of over £80 million.

Jennie Ludford, PR and CSR Manager, NFU Mutual

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