A couple who lost £700 of newly-bought furniture after a flash flood might not get a compensation payout because the insurance company had no proof it had rained.

Roger Smith, 52, and his wife Barbara, 53, from Sutton, were temporarily storing wardrobes they had just bought, while waiting for them to be fitted, when torrential rain turned Mr Smith’s road into a fast-flowing river and the water quickly entered his garage, ruining the new furniture last Monday evening.

Mr Smith claimed their home insurer, Sainsbury’s, said they contacted the Met Office, but since the extreme weather was not confirmed, it cannot accept the claim unless Mr Smith proves the sudden downpours really hit the area.

He said: “We had to wait 24 hours and then they said the Met Office confirmed there was not enough rain here. They’ve asked us to check the local newspaper and send them any stories about floods, to prove that it happened.”

According to Mrs Smith, they had to move the damp boxes inside his house and they ended up slanting his floor boards as well.

She said: “This whole thing is a bit of a nightmare. The wardrobes were brand new and about to be fitted when the it happened. It’s not our fault it rained so much the water entered our garage. That had never happened before.”

According to a Sainsbury’s spokesman, the company cannot comment on individual cases.

He said: “We need to establish that the garage didn’t flood during ‘normal’ rain simply because of the way it was maintained. The Met Office is the way we do this.

“In general terms, let’s just take a hypothetical situation, if something happened like flooding due to heavy rain or a river bursting its banks, once the insurer has checked with the Met Office (which often takes until the overnight Met Office update to confirm) then there would be no problem with agreeing to the claim.”

Last week, the Sutton Guardian reported on flash floods at about 6.30pm on the same day, which caused a woman’s car to be trapped under seven feet of water beneath Wallington Rail Bridge. She was rescued by a passerby and a punter from a nearby pub.