Residents face huge bills in wake of rainstorms

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DEEP TROUBLE: Nexus said less than 5% of UAE residents have home insurance.

Many residents face huge bills in the aftermath of last week's heavy rainstorms as less than 5% of the four million people living in the UAE have home insurance, a broker warned on Sunday.

Record rainfall of 110 millimetres over two days caused havoc on the UAE's roads, with traffic at a standstill in city centres and a record number of accidents reported due to speeding and the poor road conditions.

The rain also caused flooding in many areas of the country, damaging properties and vehicles, and forcing some residents to wade through waist-high water just to leave their home.

"Situations like the January rainstorms highlight the necessity of adequate insurance and demonstrate the challenges posed by the high number of under-insured and uninsured properties in the UAE,” said Michael Walton, director of general insurance at Nexus Insurance Brokers.

“Given that experts believe that climate change will result in more extreme weather in the coming years, it is likely that the associated problems are likely to increase, unless more people insure their assets."

Nexus said the reason so few people had home insurance was due to a lack of awareness.

Insurers also warned that motorists could be hit with extra costs caused by flood damage to their vehicles due to insufficient policy protection.

“It’s important for drivers to know that some insurance policies do provide coverage in the event of water damage to their vehicle, covered under the ‘Riot, strike, storm and flood’ clause,” said Angela Baldwin, corporate development manager at Axa Insurance.

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Home Insurance
Posted by Gautier Humbert on Monday 28 January 2008 at 15:25 UAE time


The extremely low percentage of home insurance in the UAE is a direct consequence of the lack of competence of the insurance companies. I have searched for some, but was never able to obtain any proper information due to sales persons not trained and not interested in selling this product.

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