By Felix Kong｜Licensed Insurance Agent
Looper Insurance Agency Limited (GA1034)
Published: 2026-08-31｜Last updated: 2026-08-31
The Black Rainstorm Warning comes down, the water drains away, and that is when the hard part starts. A car flooded to the dashboard, a ground-floor shop with mud across the floor: what you do over the next three days decides how much of the claim gets paid, and sometimes whether it gets paid at all. This guide is not about what is covered. It is about execution after the event. The Hong Kong Observatory defines the Black Rainstorm Warning Signal as very heavy rain "exceeding 70 millimetres in an hour" that has fallen or is expected generally over Hong Kong and is likely to continue, with the Amber and Red thresholds at 30 and 50 millimetres. Looper Insurance Agency Limited (GA1034) is a licensed insurance agency, and the days after the water goes down are ordinary working days for us.
Table of Contents
The first hour: do not make the loss bigger
The 72-hour timeline and what to record
Police reports: when you actually need a report number
Notifying your insurer: how the deadlines work
Motor: comprehensive responds to flood, third party does not
Shops: four separate buckets of loss
Business interruption: usually needs insured material damage
FAQ
1. The first hour: do not make the loss bigger
Between 11pm and midnight on 7 September 2023, the Observatory Headquarters recorded 158.1 millimetres of rain in one hour, the highest since records began in 1884, and the Black Rainstorm Warning that night ran for more than seven hours, beating the record of five hours and 47 minutes set on 23 August 1999. At that rate, water gets into car parks and shops without anybody having done anything wrong.
For a vehicle, the first rule is do not turn the key, and do not power up the electronics to see whether it still runs. Once water reaches the air intake, starting the engine bends a connecting rod, a failure the trade calls hydrolock, and a water ingress loss becomes a written off engine. On an electric or hybrid car, the high voltage battery and wiring loom should not be energised or charged either.
Almost every policy requires the insured to take reasonable steps to prevent or minimise loss, and turning the key after the water recedes is, to a loss adjuster, you enlarging the loss yourself.
For a shop, kill the main switch before going in and stay out of the basement until the water has drained. Street flooding goes to the Drainage Services Department 24-hour hotline 2300 1110, and where flooding threatens life, call 999.
2. The 72-hour timeline and what to record
Time | Private car | Ground-floor shop |
|---|---|---|
0 to 1 hour | Do not start it; photograph the waterline, location and time | Kill the main switch; check nobody is hurt; photograph water levels |
1 to 6 hours | Arrange towing, after checking whether the policy names a towing arrangement | Photograph the scene before pumping out; set damaged stock aside, do not discard |
6 to 24 hours | Notify the insurer; report to police if a third party is involved | Notify the insurer; write to the landlord if the water came from common areas |
24 to 72 hours | Submit the claim form; let the adjuster inspect the car before it is stripped | Pull stock counts, invoices and POS records; file expense receipts separately |
The step that goes wrong is rarely the first. It is the second. Owners pump out, dump stock and rip up flooring, and by the time the adjuster arrives the site is clean and the quantum is guesswork. The Hong Kong Federation of Insurers puts it plainly: keep the damaged items and photograph them as supporting evidence.
For a vehicle, photograph the waterline on the door with the plate in frame, the carpets, under the seats, the instrument panel and the air filter: a wet floorpan and a car submerged above the centre console settle very differently. For a shop, photograph the water level outside the shutter, the stain line on the wall with a ruler against it, every rack and the serial plates on machinery, using original camera files.
3. Police reports: when you actually need a report number
Reporting to the police and claiming on a policy are separate things, and not every flood needs a report number. Section 56 of the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374) deals with traffic accidents: a driver involved in an accident causing injury or damage must stop, and where particulars cannot be given at the scene, must report as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours, at the nearest police station or to any police officer. A parked car that fills with water is not a traffic accident, so that duty generally does not bite.
Situation | Report number needed | Why |
|---|---|---|
Car flooded while parked, nothing struck | Generally no | Not a traffic accident, and policies usually do not require one |
Car moved by water into another vehicle or a structure | Yes | Third party property damage, within Cap. 374 |
Anyone injured, or theft suspected | Yes | Injury must be reported; theft claims almost always need a number |
Break-in or vandalism at the shop | Yes | Theft and malicious damage need a police record |
When in doubt, report. The number costs an hour; not having one your policy requires costs an argument.
4. Notifying your insurer: how the deadlines work
No Hong Kong statute tells you how many days you have to notify an insurer. The deadline sits in your policy, usually in the General Conditions or Claims Conditions behind the schedule. Three drafting styles are common: immediate notice, meaning a call or email the same day; a fixed number of days for written particulars, with some commercial fire wordings requiring details within 30 days of the loss, counted from the loss and not from the day your repair quotation lands; and a limitation condition forfeiting the claim if proceedings are not brought within, say, 12 months.
5. Motor: comprehensive responds to flood, third party does not
The Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Ordinance (Cap. 272) compels third party cover only. Damage to your own car sits outside that statutory minimum.
Type of loss | Comprehensive | Third Party, Fire and Theft | Third Party Only |
|---|---|---|---|
Flood damage to your own vehicle | Generally covered | Not covered | Not covered |
Fire or theft of your own vehicle | Covered | Covered | Not covered |
Injury to a third party or damage to their property | Covered | Covered | Covered |
The Federation made the same point on 26 April 2024: third party cover responds to third party property damage, injury and death, while comprehensive extends to the driver's own accident and property losses.
A flooded car most often ends as a total loss. The usual measure of indemnity is the market value at the time of loss, or the value declared in the policy, whichever is lower, not what you paid. Excesses vary widely too: when the Consumer Council compared 17 private car comprehensive plans in CHOICE issue 489 (17 July 2017), the theft and damage excess on one model ranged from HKD 1,000 to HKD 34,993, a 33-fold spread. Before lodging a claim, work out the settlement less the excess, then less the no claim bonus you forfeit at renewal.
6. Shops: four separate buckets of loss
Operators ask whether the shop policy covers flooding. The question cannot be answered as asked, because a flooded shop produces at least four kinds of loss on different bases.
Loss | Where it normally sits | Common trap |
|---|---|---|
Building structure, external walls, floor slab | The landlord's building fire or property policy | Tenants assume it pays for their own property |
Fit-out and fixtures (tenant's improvements) | Property section of the tenant's own policy | Sum insured never updated after a refit |
Stock in trade | A separate sum insured in the property section | Peak season stock far above the declared figure |
Machinery, chillers, POS terminals, air conditioning | Property or machinery section | Some policies settle on a depreciated basis, not as new |
The fifth bucket is lost income, covered in section 7. The basis of cover matters: a traditional fire policy insures fire, lightning and explosion of boilers or gas used for domestic purposes, while windstorm, typhoon and flood are extra perils that must be listed in the schedule to operate. Property All Risks is structured differently, and the Federation states that flood losses fall within it. Watch the underinsurance condition too: if the sum insured is 60 per cent of true value, the settlement can be cut in proportion.
Employees are easy to overlook. Staff injured while clearing the site fall under Employees' Compensation cover, and casual hands hired for the clean-up need to be inside it too. The Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) requires every employer to insure, and a breach of section 40(1) carries a fine of up to HKD 100,000 and two years' imprisonment.
7. Business interruption: usually needs insured material damage
Business interruption cover does not mean "closed, therefore paid". Under almost every BI wording the trigger is material damage insured by the policy that causes the interruption, and only then does the BI section respond.
Situation | Does BI usually respond | Why |
|---|---|---|
Shop flooded, stock and machinery damaged, closed two weeks | Possibly | Insured material damage, so the trigger is satisfied |
Shop undamaged, no customers on a black rainstorm day | Generally no | No material damage, so no trigger |
Common areas flooded, shop undamaged but inaccessible | Depends on a denial of access extension | An extension, not part of the base cover |
Closure caused by loss of power or water | Depends on a public utilities extension | Some packages apply a waiting period, for example 48 hours |
The Federation describes the cover as responding to income lost through the inability to trade, plus rent, staff wages and additional expenditure such as temporary premises and equipment repairs. How long it runs depends on the indemnity period in your schedule, commonly 12 months from the damage.
On 26 April 2024 the Federation reported that during Typhoon Koinu, 39 insurers representing roughly 60 per cent of the market recorded 1,761 claims totalling over HKD 84.6 million, of which property damage, business interruption and engineering material damage made up more than HKD 78.88 million. Weather losses are paid mostly on premises, not cars.
FAQ
Q: My car was flooded and I hold third party cover only. Will it pay?
A: No. Third party cover responds to your liability for injury and property damage suffered by others, not to your own vehicle. Flood damage to the vehicle is generally picked up only by comprehensive cover; third party, fire and theft policies exclude flood. Cap. 272 compels third party risks only.
Q: Is a flooded car always a write-off, and how much is paid?
A: Not always, though cars submerged above the centre console are frequently written off. The measure of indemnity is usually the market value at the time of loss or the declared value, whichever is lower, less the excess. A declared value set too low reduces what you get.
Q: Do I need a police report number for a flooded car?
A: Not usually, if the car was parked and no third party was involved, because that is not a traffic accident. You do need one if the car was moved by water into another vehicle or a structure, if anyone was injured, or if theft is suspected. Section 56 of the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374) requires a driver who cannot give particulars at the scene to report within 24 hours.
Q: My shop was not flooded, but a black rainstorm killed a day of trade. Does BI respond?
A: Generally not. Most BI wordings require insured material damage causing the interruption, and without damage there is no trigger. Cover for inaccessible premises or a utilities failure depends on denial of access or public utilities extensions, which carry a waiting period.
Q: How quickly must I notify my insurer, and what happens if I am late?
A: Check the claims conditions in your policy. Wordings commonly require immediate notice, or written particulars within a stated number of days, and some commercial fire policies specify 30 days from the loss. Open the file the same day rather than waiting for documents: once the site is cleared and receipts are scattered, the adjuster has nothing to verify.
Next Step
If a flood loss is on your hands, the useful question is not whether it is covered. It is three checks: whether your motor policy is comprehensive or third party, whether flood is an operative peril on your shop policy, and whether your business interruption section carries a denial of access extension. Send us the policy and schedule and we will read them line by line.
Related Articles
Motor Insurance in Hong Kong: Third Party vs Comprehensive (English Guide)
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One Fake Email Stopped the Business for Three Days: Cyber Insurance for Hong Kong SMEs
Free Quote
Looper Insurance Agency Limited (GA1034) offers a free policy check and quotations for motor, commercial property, business interruption and employees' compensation cover.
Tel: 2633 6813
Email: cs@looperin.com
Website: www.looperin.com
Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute insurance or legal advice. Legislation, warning definitions and published statistics are as announced by the relevant authorities. Actual coverage is subject to policy terms and conditions. For legal advice, consult a solicitor.
免責聲明：本文僅供參考，不構成保險或法律建議。文中法例、警告定義及公開統計以政府部門及有關機構最新公布為準，實際保障範圍以保單條款為準。如需專業保險建議請聯絡持牌保險代理，法律問題請諮詢律師。
Conclusion
Turning the key on a flooded car does not save it; it turns water damage into a written-off engine. Rushing to pump out a shop and toss the stock does the same to a claim, because the adjuster arrives to find nothing left to inspect. Photograph everything and notify the insurer before you clean up. Talk to us about getting a flood claim handled properly.
Felix Kong
CEO
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