A HOME insurance firm, which prides itself on doing “a bit more”, has apologised for letting down customers when their homes flooded on Saturday.

Several families in Fairmead, Rayleigh, who had 18 inches of water in their homes, were covered by insurer More Than.

The company advertises with the slogan “I’m more than free man” spoken by an impersonator of Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman to stress how it offers services beyond that of other insurers.

Yet customers branded the insurer “less than” after staff answering its emergency hotline during the flooding left them to fend for themselves.

Graham Phillips, whose home is one of five in Fairmead insured by More Than, said: “We called the emergency number when the water was pouring into the house, asking for advice about anything we could do to limit the damage or if they could help.

“But when we said it was water coming into the house from outside, they said it was not classed as an emergency so there was nothing they could do.

“They said if a water pipe had burst inside the house that would be an emergency and they could get someone out to us. They may be called More Than, but the service we got was less than we expected.”

Most families there are now trying to get the insurer to provide hotel accommodation while their flood damaged properties are fixed.

However, Mr Phillips said one family had been turned away from a hotel in Basildon due to problems with paperwork in respect of the insurance.

After the Echo approached Royal Sun Alliance, which owns the More Than brand, it apologised and sent staff to the street to help families.

A spokeswoman said: “We’re very sorry.

“When someone’s house has been flooded, they should be offered help from our emergency response team, but it appears in this instance not all customers were given this service.

“We have discussed these cases with the claims handlers concerned and reiterated the correct process, to ensure this does not happen again.

“A member of our specialist team was sent to Rayleigh to help those customers affected by the floods and they will continue to be on hand to offer support and advice over the next few days.”