Insurance denied for Britons' French hilltop home due to 'flood risk'

A British couple report being refused home insurance for their second home due to ‘flooding risks’ – even though it is on a hill in a commune which has not had a flood in living memory.

Nicky Webb and her husband Robert Ziegler from Cambridge bought their home in Antraigues-sur-Volane (Ardèche) two years ago, and have slowly started improving it.

They know the area well, having visited the Cévennes of southern Ardèche for 30 years.

After a recommendation from a friend they insured it with UK second home specialist Intasure.

“We had started looking at French insurers on the web, but were put off because many seemed to have 30-day limits on the time a house could be left unoccupied,” said Ms Webb.

“Intasure said that would not be a problem and we signed for them, paying £968 during 2025, and about the same in 2024.”

As the deadline for the insurance payment came due, she was surprised to get a letter from Intasure which stated: 

“Unfortunately, the underwriters have declined the risk this year due to your property’s proximity to water. 

“This decision is based on the increased frequency of flooding in France. 

“The underwriters have utilised advanced mapping tools to assess areas where flooding is more likely to occur, and your property falls within one of these identified zones.”

Ms Webb said a change from the property being listed by its address, to geographical co-ordinates might have been behind the decision.

“The commune has three rivers in it, but they have not flooded,” she said.

“I asked at the mairie, and they say they have only ever made one natural catastrophe claim and that was for a landslide in 2005.”

In comparison, Le Monde newspaper counted 87 times in the last 30 years where the city of Nice asked for a declaration of natural catastrophe.

Intasure declined to give an explanation to The Connexion.

Ms Webb said the couple were now exploring alternatives, with adding the second home to their main home insurance probably being the most likely.

In France, cases of people being refused home insurance are rare, although concerns have been raised over increases in premiums, which went up around 10% last year according to the broker Meilleurtaux.com.

There have been issues with some communes or groups of communes struggling to obtain insurance (or affordable insurance) for municipal buildings, with insurance firms citing especially the increasing cost of covering natural disaster claims in recent years. 

The government set up a task force called CollectivAssur in April last year in a bid to find solutions to this.

In his annual report published in November 2025, insurance mediator Arnaud Chneiweiss did not mention any complaints from clients about French companies refusing, or ending cover, for people’s houses because of a supposed flood risk.

He told The Connexion: “We have had cases where people are in conflict with insurance companies after natural catastrophes, but very, very few cases where insurance companies have tried to end contracts for this reason.”