Yesterday afternoon, an amber warning was issued for southwest England with up to 10cm of snowfall forecast for some areas. The warning came as London and the south coast braced for a yellow snow warning covering large areas of southern England, and this on the back of extensive freezing conditions in the North, Wales and Scotland over the weekend.
Reflecting on what’s happening across the UK, Peter Farrelly (pictured), chief operating officer for Sedgwick UK, noted that since New Year’s Day, the UK has played host to inconsistent temperatures.
“What we saw from the New Year conditions was melting snow followed by heavy rain - and that resulted in flooding to areas like Stockport, Greater Manchester,” he said. “But the flooding was fairly localised and not as widespread as we’ve from other New Year events over the years. While there have been incoming claims arising from that period, that increase hasn’t been significant.”
There has been some snowfall but it’s not particularly severe and it’s quickly melting, he said - in addition, there has been heavy rain as the temperatures rise, which has led to localised pockets of flooding. “What we’re now moving into is a longer period of sub-zero temperatures with forecasts projecting temperatures well below zero at night and barely above zero in the day. This is forecast to continue through to the weekend.”
Farrelly highlighted that it’s when there’s a sustained period of fairly dramatic changes in temperatures that loss adjusters are at their busiest – as these are the ingredients for burst pipes on a large scale. Offering his insight into how snowstorms compare as a weather peril to others such as flood and hail, he noted that the UK tends to see short-lived snowstorms which themselves don’t cause a great deal of damage. Unless it’s sustained over a period of days, he said, snowstorms don’t tend to incur a lot of property damage though they do create significant disruption to road, rail and other infrastructure. “It's sustained severe weather, snow accompanied by freezing conditions over a longer period, which causes more significant damage,” he said.
“An we've probably only seen those conditions in the UK twice in the last 10 years, where the snow begins to accumulate on roofs, resulting in the collapse of roofs. I can only recall looking at claims for the collapse of roofs as caused by snow twice in the last 10 years or so.”
Unlike in many of the Scandinavian countries, where they see a great deal of this accumulation and so have found efficient techniques for removing snow from roofs, most policyholders in the UK don’t have that experience. As a result, when they do occur, people tend to be caught unaware and underestimate the weight of snow on roofs.
“That is rare in the UK,” he said. “Here, it’s the freezing conditions which accompany the snow, particularly if they’re sustained, which can cause burst pipes, and these can be extremely high in numbers. The last large-scale burst pipe winter freeze event was December 2022, where we saw significant damage to property across the UK.
“That was a result of these sustained subzero temperatures during night and day, followed by a thaw. I don't think we're in for more of that, but we could be in for something on a reduced scale. Certainly, the ingredients are there right now for something, not on that level, but reasonably significant nonetheless.”
Issuing his advice for insurance brokers looking to support their policyholders through this period, Farrelly cautioned the need to make sure premises are adequately heated, particularly when they are left unoccupied overnight. “Also use the frost stats,” he said. “My dad was a heating engineer before he retired and his advice was that if you go on holiday, make sure the stats which control the heating are on frost at least. Maintain an adequate temperature so that the heating kicks in so there’s less risk of pipes freezing.
“You can’t always heat premises overnight, and, regardless, you want to make sure that pipes are lagged. It would surprise you to see the number of premises where pipes, even to this day, are not lagged. We do have plastic pipe work replacing copper nowadays, so the need is not so much - but in some older buildings, make sure the pipes are lagged.”
If premises are unoccupied, it’s likely the policyholder will be on restricted cover but, regardless of whether you’re insured or uninsured, for unoccupied premises, you should look to drain the water supply. That's a basic principle, he said, but his team still sees unoccupied premises where the water hasn't been drained. That can prove difficult in some situations - such as those related to multi-occupancy buildings - but in those cases, people should at least turn off the water supply at the entry to their particular premises.
“So, drain as much and turn off the water supply to the premises to stop the water coming in,” he said. “Also, check your premises regularly. What we have seen in previous Christmas / New Year periods, is business premises being left temporarily unoccupied for the holiday period, and business owners coming back after severe weather conditions and finding that they had a burst pipe.
“So, make sure you check the premises periodically during any period of temporary unoccupancy just to make sure that when you get back, that you've done all within your control to check for anything untoward in terms of burst pipes. Finally, if there is a heavy accumulation of snow, clear the roof regularly of the accumulating snow because people do underestimate the weight of snow on roofs. It is rare in the UK but it can happen - and when it does happen, we see some really significant claims.”
