Roz, was talking to a friend yesterday who is in the industry about your experience with the AA. The likelyhood is that you were speaking to a spotty 19 year old whose last experience of a floodplain was something he missed in class because he was looking at the blond girl two seats in front of him. In the good old days of insurance brokers knew what they were on about however computers have now taken over so they dont have to.

The crux of the matter is that looking at a map of Forest Hill last night (one with topographical details on it (Google maps have one)) I noticed that my house on Waldenshaw Road is 210 feet above sea level. Now I also know that if all the Polar ice caps melted the sea level would rise by an average of 200 feet hence my earlier comment about owning a nice seaside villa.

Now I dont know where you live but it is worth looking on a topographical map to see your hight but also if there are any nearby streams.

You may then want to get hold of the insurance company, not the AA who are just brokers, and explain to customer services why they have lost a sale.

I know it would take a bit of time but it would give me some sense of getting one over on "the man".

Good luck.

When I worked in the Council's drainage section insurance companies used to phone me and ask how high above sea level properties were.

?400 for contents insurance = seems a bit high to me, why dont you try a different broker/insurer, i went on line and only paid ?78 - with the insurer being AXA, and this covers contents up to ?60k plus all accidental breakages - the house insurance seems rather steep also, cant really comment as mine is paid via my service charge as i own a flat - well the leasehold anyway and these service charges can be rather high, mine was ?111 per month, just waiting to hear what the new one will be - oh deep joy

[/quote]?400 for contents insurance = seems a bit high to me[/quote]

Unfortunately it all depends where you live. When I lived in Forest Hill until a few years ago I was paying ?36 a month for contents insurance only (Property was like yours included in my Service Charge)
Now I live in Norwich I have just paid my COMBINED House and Contents for ?135 for the year. When I moved here I got a ?125 rebate on my motor insurance for which I had paid over ?300 in FH. This years Motor Insurance was ?145.

BT - think you may have hit the nail on the head there - however still find it hard to believe that Tooting would be cheaper to insure than Forest Hill, as i dont think crime is that bad in FH or is it ? - Forest Hilliers - please enlighten me as it always seems pretty ok when i visit which is twice a month

There is a thread I put up on FH being a crime hot spot "alledgedly"

Thanks for that - bit surprised, then maybe i dont get there that often

There have been floods in Forest Hill. In the late 90's / eary 00's there was some really heavy rainfall. The runoff forced the grates up and Stanstead was like a mini river. The Catford side of Stanstead Road had a puddle about 40 feet long and stretching beyond the middle of the road around the corner of the road opposite Rathfern Road. I remember it well as I was drenched by a bus which shot through the puddle sending water over 6 feet in the air soaking my literally from head to toe. I had parked my car at Forest Hill station but had been forced to come back via Catford as the Forest Hill line was suspended.

I had to go home and change before I picked up the car. There was about a foot of water in the under pass at the railway station and about the same on the road under the railway bridge. I drove down Stanstead and a number of the grates were up with water appearing to be being forced out, and the fire brigade were pumping out a basement a couple of doors from the fire station.

I thought it was a little exceptional so I picked up my elderley neighbour and took her around to show her. I remember the water on Hurstbourne being quite deep in the road too, but I don't know how many people's houses were affected by it though

It is possible that flooding claims were made to the particular company at that time which has affected premiums.

It may have been but I think the AA's position was unreasonable as they made statements that were not borne out by the facts when they said it was confirmed by the Environment Agency; it isn't. We changed insurers and its not an issue.

Some insurers won't consider SE23 for building cover due to a higher than average incidence of subsidence, I simply move on to another insurer

Forest Hill was flooded in many areas many years ago. However, it is not in the Environment Agencies map of flod plains and there has been a new sewer pipe installed since then.

There is a pdf on the environment agency that indicates that Lewisham Borouh has 21,000 homes at risk, mainly in the north of the borough, but no mention of Forest Hill - http://environment-agency.co.uk/static/d...tsheet.pdf

For anyone interested there is a picture of a flood in Catford in 1968 here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1968

It should be obvious that the properties most at risk are nearest to the rivers as these must be in the lowest areas. I am not aware of any rivers in Foest Hill!
As Catford is several feet lower than Forest Hill, if Forest Hill floods, Catford will be under several feet of water!
However, the flood prevention scheme in the Ladywell Rec should take away most surface water.