INSURANCE companies are becoming much warier of potential customers due to the effects of 'global warming', it seems.
Many people whose homes are built on eroding coastlines, or near flood-prone rivers, are now apparently struggling to get insured at all.
It's not surprising, I suppose.
I'm just glad I don't live beside a crumbling cliff edge or have my house backing onto an unpredictable river.
Insuring anything is a tricky game these days - sometimes played by tricky companies.
In fact, I've had a healthy suspicion of insurance firms long before environmental risk assessment started to play a part in their business dealings.
Of course, they couldn't be friendlier when you take out a policy and hand over your cash on the back of their oh-so-sincere promises.
But getting a proper payout when something is broken or goes belly up can be another matter altogether.
Many customers have been referred back to a tiny detail in the small print which says something like:'We pay out in all circumstances - except if your misfortune happens on a Wednesday' or 'Everyone is covered apart from pasty-faced BFP bloggers born in Lancashire.'
Then there are events that you are not even sure you're covered for but believe you should be.
What about this ?
The other day I was helping my wife bring masses of shopping out of the car boot into the house.
A huge onion spilled out of a bag and, because we live on a hill, ran under the car and out into the road.
A passing motorist, heading towards us at speed, braked and swerved to miss the onion.
He almost ran into our car.
Now, if he had hit the car, would our fully comp' motor insurance have covered us completely or would we have had to stump up a hefty part of the cost ourselves because of some hidden 'onion hazards excepted' clause ?
Who knows ?
Certainly not me.