Loss Assessor Birmingham

Workshops, terraces and interwar homes

The Jewellery Quarter holds what Birmingham City Council calls the city's largest surviving group of Victorian and early 20th century jewellery workshops, many now in mixed or residential use. Further out, Victorian and Edwardian terraces give way to large interwar estates of semi-detached homes, such as Kingstanding.

By the end of the First World War, Birmingham had more than 43,000 back-to-back houses. Only one court survives, now cared for by the National Trust, but many of the terraces that replaced them are well over a century old, and insurers often point to age and wear when an older roof or pipe fails.

Tornadoes, storms and flash flooding

Birmingham knows how damaging wind can be. On 28 July 2005, a tornado crossed Kings Heath, Moseley, Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook and Sparkhill, damaging more than 500 buildings, and it is still the costliest tornado on record in the UK. In October 2023, Storm Babet flooded parts of Bournville, Stirchley and Northfield.

The Environment Agency's Perry Barr and Witton scheme now protects about 1,400 properties, including 950 homes, from the River Tame. Where water or wind does get in, our flood damage claims and storm damage claims pages explain how we build the evidence.

Clay ground and the coalfield edge

Parts of Birmingham stand on Mercia Mudstone, a clay-rich rock that can shrink and swell as its moisture changes. Hamstead Colliery, on the city's north-west edge, was the only coal mine inside the city boundary and worked until 1965, while the neighbouring Black Country boroughs sit on the South Staffordshire Coalfield.

The two causes lead to different claims. Clay movement is usually a matter for your buildings insurer, while damage from past coal mining normally goes to the Mining Remediation Authority, formerly the Coal Authority. A property's mining history can be checked through the government's online coal mining search.

Listed buildings in the Jewellery Quarter

The Jewellery Quarter is one of 29 conservation areas in Birmingham and contains more than 200 listed buildings. Work that affects a listed building's character needs listed building consent from Birmingham City Council, and doing it without consent is a criminal offence. Repairs here can call for specialist trades and materials, and the claim has to allow for them.