Flood Re Explained: The 8 Eligibility Rules And What The Scheme Actually Pays For

Flood Risk Checker is not Flood Re and is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. This page explains the scheme's published rules; it is not advice. Only an insurer can confirm whether it will use Flood Re for your policy.

---

What Is Flood Re?

Flood Re is a reinsurance scheme, launched on 4 April 2016, that helps make home insurance affordable for homes at high risk of flooding. It works behind an ordinary policy: in Flood Re's words, your insurer can choose to pass the flood risk element of your policy to Flood Re for a fixed price; if you make a valid claim, your insurer pays it and Flood Re later reimburses the insurer.

How the money moves:

1. You buy home insurance in the normal way. Flood Re says there is no difference in the way you buy a policy or make a claim.
2. Your insurer decides whether to use Flood Re. If it does, Flood Re charges the insurer a fixed premium based on the home's Council Tax band.
3. If you claim for a flood, your insurer pays the claim and is later reimbursed by Flood Re.
4. The scheme is funded by the industry. Every insurer that offers home insurance in the UK must pay into the Flood Re Scheme, and the levy raises £160m every year.

Flood Re is due to run until 2039. It covers homes located within the UK comprising England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (excluding the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands).

---

Are You Eligible For Flood Re?

A home is eligible for Flood Re only if it meets all eight of the scheme's conditions. Failing any one of them means the insurer cannot pass the flood risk to Flood Re, whatever the level of flood risk or claims history.

The eight conditions, as Flood Re publishes them:

Flood Re expects the following to qualify for buildings or combined cover if they meet all eight conditions: bed and breakfast premises paying Council Tax and insured under a home insurance contract; farmhouse dwellings and cottages; holiday and second homes; properties occupied by home workers; individual leaseholders protecting their own property or flat; leasehold blocks of 3 units or fewer where the freeholder lives in one of the units; single unit leasehold properties where the leaseholder insures the structure; residential buy to let properties; static caravans and homes in personal ownership.

Contents cover has a wider reach. Flood Re will also cover a tenant's / individual's contents in rented or leasehold properties even where the buildings risk would not be eligible (such as in large blocks of flats), provided the policy and property meet the eight conditions.

---

Which Properties Are Excluded From Flood Re?

Homes built on or after 1 January 2009 are excluded from Flood Re, as are properties used commercially. Flood Re does not expect these to qualify for buildings or combined cover: bed and breakfast premises paying business rates; blocks of more than three residential flats; company houses and flats; properties covered by contingent buildings policies (e.g. held by banks); farm outbuildings; properties used by freeholders or leaseholders to derive commercial income from blocks or portfolios; housing associations' residential properties; multi-use properties under commercial or private ownership; residential buy to let that does not meet the criteria; social housing properties (eligible for contents cover but not buildings cover); static caravan site owners (for commercial gain).

The exclusions that catch people out most:

• New homes. Any home built in 2009 or later is outside the scheme, however high its flood risk.
• Blocks of four or more flats. The building cannot be ceded, although a tenant's or leaseholder's contents can.
• Rented homes. Flood Re's criteria list residential buy-to-let as eligible where all eight conditions are met, but its online tool says We don't accept commercial properties, business properties, or properties that are rented out to non-immediate family members. Condition 2 requires the policyholder or immediate family to live there, or the home to be empty, so most let property will not meet it. Ask the insurer.
• Social housing and housing association homes. Neither is expected to qualify for buildings cover; Flood Re notes that social housing is eligible for contents cover.

A home that fails these rules needs a specialist insurer outside the scheme, explained in flood insurance.

---

How Much Does Flood Re Cost By Council Tax Band?

Flood Re charges the insurer, not the homeowner, a fixed premium set by the home's Council Tax band. For 2026/27, the flood part of a buildings policy costs the insurer from £147 in band A to £1,077 in band H.

Net inward reinsurance premiums charged by Flood Re to insurers from 1 April 2026. Northern Ireland uses bands 1 to 8 with the same figures. Wales has bands A to I; Flood Re's table does not show a separate figure for band I. Source: Flood Re.

These figures are what the insurer pays Flood Re for the flood risk alone. Your premium also covers everything else in the policy and the insurer's own costs, and Prices, excesses and terms for policies are set by insurers and not Flood Re. From April 2027, the contents premium for bands A and B falls from £58 to £25 from April 2027; Flood Re found that in three of the last four years, Flood Re has spent more repairing properties in Council Tax Bands G and H than properties in Bands A and B.

---

Does Flood Re Set Your Flood Excess?

Flood Re does not set the excess you pay. Flood Re applies a standard £250 excess to the insurer when it reimburses a flood claim, but the excess on your own policy is chosen by your insurer and can be higher.

Flood Re's own wording is: "We also apply a standard excess of £250 for each policy," and "Prices, excesses and terms for policies are set by insurers and not Flood Re." The £250 is therefore the insurer's excess with Flood Re, not a cap on yours. Always check the flood excess in the policy schedule before buying. What a high flood excess means, and whether buy-back cover helps, is explained in flood excess insurance.

---

How Do You Get A Flood Re Policy?

You cannot buy a Flood Re policy directly. Flood Re is reinsurance that an insurer buys behind your policy, so you buy ordinary home insurance from an insurer or broker that uses the scheme, and it's the insurers that choose whether or not to reinsure that property through us.

The practical steps:

1. Check the eight conditions above.
2. Ask insurers or brokers directly whether they will use Flood Re for your home. Flood Re publishes a list of some participating insurers, though insurers can opt out of being listed.
3. Use the BIBA and ABI Flood Insurance Directory on 0370 950 1790, which lists Flood Re specialists.
4. Compare the full policy, including the flood excess, not only the premium.

Flood Re itself states: "We don't offer advice or give recommendations."

---

What Is Build Back Better?

Build Back Better is a Flood Re option that pays for flood resilience work during a flood repair, on top of fixing the damage. Flood Re allows reimbursement of up to £10,000, but each insurer sets its own limit, and not every policy includes it.

Build Back Better can pay for carrying out surveys to understand the flood risk and potential mitigation, the addition of flood resistance measures such as flood doors, and flood resilience measures such as the replacement of damaged parts of the home with more flood resilient materials such as hard floors. Asked whether a customer will receive the full £10,000, Flood Re answers: "Not necessarily – each Insurer sets their own limit." If you want it, Flood Re advises you to speak to your broker or insurer before committing to purchase your policy.

The measures themselves, from flood doors to resilient floors, are covered in property flood resilience.

---

What Happens When Flood Re Ends In 2039?

Flood Re will remain in place until 2039. It was set up as a temporary scheme to support the move to a future insurance market where flood risk is properly understood and reflected, so after 2039 flood cover is expected to be priced on each home's own flood risk.

What this means depends on how long you will own the home:

• A 25-year mortgage taken out in 2026 runs to 2051, twelve years beyond the scheme's planned end. Resilience measures and flood history will matter to insurance on that home after 2039.
• Flood Re is introducing Flood Performance Certificates (FPCs), meant to help homeowners, buyers, renters and insurers better understand a property's flood risk and the measures that can reduce potential flood damage.
• Resilience work done now, including through Build Back Better, is Flood Re's stated route to a smoother transition.

What the 2039 end date means before buying a home in a flood risk area is covered in buying a house in a flood risk area.

---

Sources (Verified 17 Sep 2026)