With the recent bad weather bringing water levers higher than usual, places that have never been prone to flooding before have been submerged under water with many business and homes damaged and some completely beyond repair. More people than ever are having to make insurance claims, with last years flooding insurance claims estimated at £1.5 billion, how do you get the best possible settlement to start the unenviable process of rebuilding your home?

Whether you need to make an insurance claim after a flood or a fire you should remember that insurance companies do what they can to make sure that they pay out the least amount possible in a settlement. If you are unlucky enough to have to make a claim following damage to your property, then you can enlist the help of loss assessors who act on your behalf and make sure that they get the best possible pay out from your claim, by dealing directly with your insurance company.

When making a claim, follow these steps:

1) After a flood or fire, burglary or theft, you should dig out your policy details and make sure that you are covered for the said damage.
2) Contact your insurance company and explain the damage and what has caused this.
3) You will then have to either fill out an insurance claims form or they will do this over the phone for you to save time. Bear in mind that you may have to get estimates for the repair of the damage and/ or claim for the emergency repairs that you have had to make in the interim.
4) Your insurance company will then send someone to assess the damage caused to your home or property.
5) You should then receive a settlement amount from your insurance company, which 9 times out of 10 is a lot less than you had expected or hoped it to be. If this is the case, then you can employ a loss assessor to work your claim and get you the best possible settlement.

Loss Assessors tend to work on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, only taking a small percentage and take the stress out of making a claim and working completely on your behalf. AKA Assisted Claims do exactly that – assist you with your claims and get you the amount that you deserve. If you have to make a claim, then employing a loss assessor is the best way for you to get the most from your claim and makes the whole process a lot less arduous.

What I mean is that I just read an article on a Pension Release Site at GroveFP about the situation that Pensioners are now finding themselves in in the UK. It says that rising costs of living and lower than forecasted pension payouts are making lives more and more difficult.

I could not help but seeing some irony there…. The site has disclaimers all over it which warn that:

if you go ahead with the pension release process you may end up with less money that if you had waited for the policy to mature..

I mean how ironic when the government and large businesses are spending pension funds anyway, when pensions paid out to long term savers ( ie who have made lifetime sacrifices ) are far lower than promised/ advertised, when taxes on fuel are cranked up to the max….. what sort of incentive is there for saving for tomorrow? What sort of example will be set to future generations when we see our grandparents/ parents in poverty after a lifetime of contributions.

?

There is much in the news about Pensions and the cost of living these days, the cost of living is on the up; utility bills, council tax, fuel and the general cost of living are on the up no doubt. Wages have also been much covered in the press and media of late with wage rise demands in both private and public sectors which, generally are failing to meet the rise in inflation.In a recent survey carried out by the University of Newcastle it was suggested that the true cost of living for Pensioners has risen by over 200% over the past few years.The signs are all there, people are finding it harder and harder to get by and it does appear that a period of recession is upon us.As for Gordon Brown, I have been tempted to feel sorry for him upon occasion but it should be remembered that he was Chancellor of the Exchequer for most of the Blair years and, hence, is directly culpable for the mess that we may well discover ourselves in - I believe that the true extent is not yet apparent.

So, it looks like it will be a good year ahead for debt management companies and business insolvency practitioners, the credit crunch is making it more and more difficult to borrow money and traditional large lenders are being far more rigorous in their criteria before lending money.Under this climate many people are looking for ways in which they can release money from previously unfancied sources. There has been a surge in the claimant industry whereby you are encouraged to claim on bank charges, endowment compensation, childrens tax credit and personal injury by the thriving mass of companies offering to guide you through the paperwork for a small fee. Other avenues being explored are Pension Release for the Over 50’s, whereby one can unlock or release funds in a redundant pension scheme to which you no longer contribute. This is also in the same vein as the current malcontent regarding inheritance tax, we all need what we can get..The main issue in these times is to be a bit more frugal, don’t be easily fooled by get rich quick offers. What appears too good to be true generally is.

The Author, Alexis Svenn is a Financial Analyst and an article contributor to many online and offline media sources.

Article Lifted in verbatim from Business Times Online - because it is interesting and well written.

More evidence of the weakening housing market emerged yesterday when figures showed that house prices had fallen by 1 per cent in the three months to January.

Halifax said that the cost of an average home last month was, at £197,244, only £80 more than it had been in December, but the largest mortgage lender in Britain brushed off forecasts of a housing slump this year or next. Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: “We expect a more subdued market, but we don’t expect any falls in UK house prices on a national level. Some regions may experience slight falls, but these will be balanced by increases in the South of England and Scotland.”

Figures released last week by Nationwide, the second-biggest lender, indicated that house prices had fallen by 0.1 per cent in January, the third consecutive monthly decrease.

Worries over the housing market have spread to Central London, where prices for prime houses and flats in the £1 million to £2 million bracket were flat, Knight Frank, the estate agent, reported. Prices of Central London property worth up to £1 million rose by only 0.2 per cent in January, while homes priced in the £1 million to £5 million bracket rose by 0.7 per cent as demand fell among bankers with smaller bonuses to spend.

However, an unexpected surge in demand for homes worth £5 million or more in Mayfair, Chelsea, Belgravia and Knightsbridge pushed up prices for all of the prime Central London market by 1 per cent during January.

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said that he expected London house-price inflation for 2008 in the £1 million to £2 million bracket “to be not much more than zero”, compared with 5 per cent growth in house prices in the £5 million to £10 million bracket and 8 per cent in the £10 million-plus bracket.

Howard Archer, of Global Insight, said: “The fact that house prices did not plunge in January reinforces belief that the Bank of England will limit a widely expected interest-rate cut on Thursday to 25 basis points from 5.50 per cent to 5.25 per cent.”

However, a KPMG survey also found that nearly one in four borrowers were struggling to meet their monthly loan payments.