Is your home at risk of flooding?

We live very close to a river which tends to flood, and from time to time over many years now some insurance companies have stated that we are in a high flood risk area, despite the fact that we are so much higher than the river that there is not a cat in you-know-what's chance of us flooding. We have even been point blank refused insurance due to our "risk of flooding".

However I recently went on to the site where you can enter your postcode and check whether you are at risk ,and realised that - for us - it was not detailed enough to state one way or the other.

So I contacted the Environment Agency, who clarified from my postcode and house number that we are in no danger whatsoever of flooding from the river. I now have a letter to prove this fact should insurance companies still state we are in danger of flood.

Hugo SP - you can be put on flood alert if you have flooded in the past. I called to register for contact if there was a chance of flooding, and they initially said 'no' as I am not in danger of flooding from the river, but when I explained that I have had problems with flooding from rain water before they agreed to add me to the list!

My mum's house in Cornwall flooded all the time. this is because of rain water running down a hill from a farm that was behind us. (often a while after the rain stopped!) she got flooded 3 or 4 times, not major but enough to cause a nuisance - luckily the back room was tiled!! But we found a system called Homesight that connected to our pc. Its a security system but they had water sensors that you can stick anywhere so we put the probe just beneath the lip of the outside step, the actual main bit stayed inside

We then bought text message bundles and set up a rule that anytime it was immersed in water it would text 'water detected' to my mum's phone. then it was a rush home to grab the sand bags and move stuff out the way. It has worked a treat every time and because it was beneath the lip of the small step she didn't get any false rain readings and saved up some very messy cleaning up a few times!!!

I bought online at www.myhome247.co.uk. Water sensor cost £25 system with camera cost me £50 a while back, but looking at their website there seems to be a new system that is £200 but it's different to the one i had, accessories are all the same though and water sensor still available. Might be useful for someone?