Risk of surface flooding within 250m of a property

evoke

If a search shows up a risk of surface flooding within 250m of a property, is it worth worrying about? There has been no history of flooding on the road or the property so it is a calculated risk as far as I can tell.

Would it affect buildings insurance?

DVardysShadow

As ever, the horizontal distance is secondary for flooding, it is the vertical distance which matters. Some buildings insurance has been reported as affected by the horizontal distance. This shows that the insurer does not understand the nature of the risk.

BornAtTheRightTime

Have you identified the source of the risk? Does it look like it could acutally cause a flood? One of our searches came back highlighting a potential flood risk however it turned out to be a tiny brook 200m away and downhill of us. We were quite happy once we found that, and our surveyor went as far in his report to state Nil Risk of flooding.
Insurers may charge a premium - as always, shop around. Our insurance costs are not affected.

Richard_Webster

When they do these searches they don't take any account of the vertical distance from the stream etc.

Watch out for nearer culverted watercourses that you might not know are there!.

You do need to watch for the possibility of flooding occurring by water coming from a higher level, overflowing its banks. Once it does that it looks for the quickest way down and if your house is in the way......

evoke

I'll get the more detailed flood report. My solicitors want £21 for a more detailed flood risk assessment.

POPPYOSCAR

In my experience some companies will not quote if your postcode is in one of these flood risk areas.

I have noticed also that the question of if your property is within a certain distance from a water course seems to be asked a lot now.

Brushwood

I think insurance company evaluate all the risk factors related to the particular property and leave no stone unturned in this respect. So you have to consider that insurance company will check this factor too for the insurance evaluation.

evoke

The Landmark Homecheck Flood Report establishes Aviva's assessment on insuring the property so is indicative of a major insurers risk assessment. Thankfully, the property i'm buying has a negligible flood risk according to Aviva and there have been no recorded flood claims for the postcode.

Cost of peace of mind? £22.80

kkgree1

We also had this when we bought our house at the end of last year. We back onto fields which has a brook running along it (vertically!).
We did take pay extra for the flood report as it gives you additional risk factors (in our case the likelihood of flooding is once every 100 years).

One of our neighbours has lived in the close 28 years and never seen it flood. Our insurance wasn't affected as the risk is negligible.

dizziblonde

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

In my experience some companies will not quote if your postcode is in one of these flood risk areas.

I have noticed also that the question of if your property is within a certain distance from a water course seems to be asked a lot now.

Yeah - as I've mentioned before my mum gets hit by this a lot. While horizontally they're in a flood risk area (they live on the riverbanks), vertically the house is so elevated from the source of the water, there'd have to be a coming of water of Noah-esque proportions for it to make it as far as the doorstep. While the track along the river floods about twice monthly at high tide (no hardship - we just go to the pub for a couple of hours till the water falls back and we can drive along), their garden and actual land is on a steep slope with the house at the top, even the garden's never actually flooded.

They do have some issues with getting insurance because of it though.