THOUSANDS have been hit with snow, rain and up to 80mph winds as Storm Gerrit batters the UK.
Motorists are bracing for another day of travel chaos as households in Greater Manchester saw a tornado rip roofs off homes.
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With the bad weather continuing, at least for today, you might be wondering what your rights are when it comes to compensation.
Luckily, you can claim money back if you’ve experienced a power outage, damage to your property, travel disruption and more.
Here’s everything you need to know about your compensation and refund rights.
Claim for power outages
You can get compensation worth up to £2,000 for unplanned power cuts caused by bad weather.
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If your power is off for more than 24 hours following bad weather, you are entitled to £80.
You will also get £80 if you are left without power for 48 hours due to a “severe” storm.
After these time frames, you’ll get a further £40 for every additional six hours you are without power, up to a maximum of £2,000.
How you can claim compensation varies depending on your distribution network operator (DNO).
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You can find out who your DNO is on the National Grid’s website.
Bear in mind, you must claim power compensation within 30 days of any power outage.
Claim for storm damage
You may be able to claim on your home insurance for storm damage, but of course this depends on the type of cover you have.
The finer detail in your terms and conditions will reveal what exactly you are covered for too.
Usually, both building and contents insurance cover against storm and weather damage, according to comparethemarket.com.
The Financial Ombudsman defines a storm as something that “generally involves violent winds, usually accompanied by rain, hail or snow”.
But many insurers have their own standards that define “bad weather”, which you agree to when you take out the policy.
In less severe weather, they may argue against you making a claim, citing things like wind speeds.
Many insurance providers won’t consider something a storm unless winds reach over 55mph.
But considering Storm Gerrit is bringing winds of up to 80mph and more, you may be able to make a successful claim.
What you can claim for
According to comparethemarket.com, things that you are likely to be able to make a claim for include:
- roof damage
- water damage
- wind damage
- sewer back-up
- frozen pipes
- damage caused by falling trees
- loss of power
You’re not likely to be able to get a payout for things such as fences, hedges and gates.
Many policies often exclude damage made to anything outside the house itself unless you have specific cover.
In some cases, insurers may refuse to pay out if you didn’t maintain your home to a good enough standard.
For example, if you make a claim for water damage to your house after the storm but the insurer’s inspection finds that the gutters aren’t clear.
In other cases, your building insurance might not cover your possessions so it’s important to check the small print before taking out the policy.
Again, check the small print of your policy to see what you’re covered for.
How to claim
If your house is damaged to badly that you can’t live in it, your insurer should pay for alternative accommodation until they have repaired it.
Get in touch with your insurer as soon as you can and find out if they have any specific requests that you need to do to make the claim.
Make sure that you take detailed photographs of all of the damage that’s be caused to your property and possessions.
You’ll need to keep all of the damaged property too as the insurance company might want to carry out their own inspection of them before making a decision.
If you need to make any emergency temporary repairs, then you should let your insurer know about it first.
Keep all of the receipts and invoices too as you can add this to your claim.
Claim for water outages
If you’re left without water due to bad weather and it isn’t restored by the time the company says it will be, you’re usually entitled to compensation of £20 for the first 24 hours.
After this point, you should get an extra £10 for each further 24-hour period you’re left without running water.
If your supplier doesn’t send you compensation within 20 working days, you care entitled to an extra £20.
However, there are some circumstances when your water company doesn’t have to pay compensation.
For example, if the weather was severe enough it was not able to meet its “standards”.
You can find out more about where you are covered on Ofwat’s website.
If you’re without water you can contact your provider, which you can find on the consumer council for water website.
Claim for broadband and landline outages
Broadband and landline customers can get money back from their provider following outages through the Automatic Compensation Scheme.
The scheme applies to problems reported from April 1, 2019.
You don’t have to ask for compensation, and it should just be given to you automatically after reporting any issues.
You should also expect compensation if your service doesn’t start when you expected it to, or if your engineer appointment is missed.
Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, previously confirmed to The Sun the scheme applies if the fault is caused by bad weather.
Any compensation is sent as a credit on your bill no later than 30 days after the issue occurred.
Landline and broadband customers can get compensation if their service has stopped working and is not fixed after two full working days.
For each calendar day that the service is not repaired after this two day period, the customer receives £9.33.
The scheme applies to the following providers:
- BT
- EE
- Hyperoptic
- Plusnet
- Sky and NOW Broadband
- TalkTalk
- Utility Warehouse
- Virgin Media
- Vodafone
- Zen Internet
Claim for car damage
You’ll only be able to make a claim on your car insurance if it’s fully comprehensive.
Third party fire and theft policies only cover if your car is damaged by another vehicle, or if your car is stolen or catches fire, according to USwitch.
So if you’re not fully comp, you’ll have to fork out for damage that’s caused by falling trees or fences from Storm Gerrit.
With a fully comp policy, you’ll still have to pay the excess – how much that is depends on how much the policy is.
But bear in mind that making a claim could see your premium rate jump up.
The exact coverage you have and what the policy will pay out for will depend on the terms and conditions, so check the finer detail.
You’ll also need to show that you’ve taken suitable care to protect your car, for instance that you weren’t driving recklessly in a storm which caused a collision.
Moneysupermarket says if your insurance company can prove contributory negligence on your part then your claim may be questioned.
If you do have fully comprehensive motor insurance and need to claim here’s how to do it:
- Contact your insurer as soon as your notice the damage – try their 24-hour emergency helpline if it is outside business hours
- Take photos of the damage – don’t move debris until you have photographic evidence
- Arrange temporary repairs as soon as possible – discuss with your insurer first so that they are aware and will be able to reimburse you later
- Don’t drive your vehicle if the damage has made it unsafe
Claim for train delays
You may be able to get compensation for train journeys that have been delayed or cancelled due to severe weather.
But, unlike broadband customers, you’ll have to apply as you won’t get it automatically.
Delay repay
All train companies have adopted “delay repay”, a national scheme used to compensate you for unexpected delays – and sometimes this includes bad weather.
Passengers are entitled to compensation for any delay of 15 minutes or more, unless the delay is caused by planned engineering work.
How much you get back depends on how long the delay is and the type of ticket you have.
Compensation ranges from 25% of the ticket price to 100%. You’ll get a full refund if your train was delayed by 120 minutes or longer.
It doesn’t matter which train company you are travelling with – the scheme is nationwide and all firms are part of it.
But how you claim the money back varies depending on the train line and you’ll have to apply to them directly.
You can usually do this online via their websites.
You’ll usually need a picture of your ticket and information about the train service you were on to claim.
Refunds
You can get your money back if your train is cancelled or delayed – but only if you chose not to travel at all.
Your unused ticket can be refunded, National Rail says, and you shouldn’t be charged a fee for this.
You can get the money back from where you bought the ticket originally.
All ticket types are refundable if you do not travel due to disruption, according to the Office of Rail and Road.
If you are not happy about a train company you can make a complaint
You need to make a complaint to the train company directly, and you can do this online, by email or over the phone.
You’ll need to provide information about the issue and your journey, such as departure station, date, time and ticket type.
You should receive a full response within 20 working days. If you’re not happy with the response you can ask them to look at it again and they have 40 days to get back to you.
If you still haven’t resolved the problem you can escalate the issue to the Rail Ombudsman.
Claim for flight delays
Cancellations
When a flight is due to depart from an EU airport, regardless of the airline, or where an EU airline is due to land at an EU airport you are covered by EU flight delay and cancellation rules.
When your flight is cancelled, you’re entitled to an alternative flight or a full refund – including a refund for the return leg.
If you opt for an alternative flight it’s up to you whether to fly as soon as possible after the cancelled flight or at a later date.
If you opt for a later flight, you may also be entitled to food, drink and accommodation, if you have to stay overnight.
Your airline may give you a voucher to redeem.
If you’re unable to contact your airline, you may need to pay for accommodation yourself and claim the cash back later – make sure you keep hold of receipts though.
If you were due to travel outside the EU, contact your airline as what you’re entitled to will vary.
Delays
If your flight has been delayed for more than five hours and it’s an EU flight, you are entitled to a refund if you no longer want to travel.
You will also get a refund for any unused parts of your booking – for example the return flight – and a flight back to your departure airport if you’ve already completed part of your journey.
If you opt for this, just keep in mind that you’ll generally no longer be entitled to any further care and assistance.
Compensation
Generally, you don’t have a right to claim additional compensation if the cause of the delay or cancellation is bad weather.
But there are a few cases where you may wish to pursue a claim.
For example, if you are told you can’t fly due to Storm Gerrit but other flights are departing then you may want to raise this with the airline.
The airline doesn’t have to compensate you if you’re told about a delay or cancellation at least two weeks in advance.
It also doesn’t have to provide compensation if flights are cancelled and rerouted between one and two weeks of the day you’re supposed to leave or it gets you to your destination no more than four hours late.
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You can get £520 in compensation if you arrive at your destination more than four hours later and the delay was the airline’s fault.
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