Flood recovery and advice

Free Legal Advice for Flood Victims

Burnetts in Carlisle is to give free legal advice to Cumbrian businesses and individuals affected by the Cumbrian floods of 2009. The firm is making the offer to anyone in Cumbria who needs advice on flood-related issues.

The offer covers any type of legal support. Experience from 2005 indicates that it’s also likely that residents will need legal help following problems with slow insurance companies or rogue builders.

Anyone wishing to take advantage of the free advice offer should contact solicitor Kenny Ling on 01228 552222 or by email to floods@burnetts.co.uk.

Advice for businesses

Advice for businesses which have been affected by the floods is available on the following websites:

• Business Link - what to do after a flood (external link)
• Cumbria Chamber of Commerce - flood support (external link)
• Contact the West Cumbria Development Agency (external link) for a list of available commercial property.
• Cockermouth and district Chamber of Trade (external link) - flood advice and help for Cockermouth businesses

Practical help with taxes for people affected by flooding

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has a special Helpline for anyone affected by the floods, where fast, practical help and advice is available. You can contact the Helpline on 0845 3000 157 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday.

Each call to the helpline will be handled on its own merits but HMRC may be able to help by:

• agreeing a revised payment schedule when customers are unable to pay due to financial difficulties caused by the flooding
• agreeing practical arrangements where individuals and businesses cannot comply with their tax obligations perhaps because their records have been lost or destroyed in the flooding
• reviewing any penalties or not imposing additional surcharges that may be triggered where customers have missed deadlines as a result of the flooding
• providing help and advice in dealing with other practical, tax related matters arising as a result of the flooding

The service is available for all HMRC taxes, including VAT, Corporation Tax, Income Tax and NICs (PAYE) and for individuals affected by the flooding.

Has your listed building flooded?

See the flooding and historical buildings guide on our listed buildings web page for advice on how to deal with flood damage to listed and historic buildings. 

Cleaning photographs

Advice on how to clean flood damaged photographs (external link).

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