Flood plane........ pain

SuperBOB

My house purchase went through TODAY - and I just discovered my shiny house is on a flood plain. From the nearby river Kelvin........

I have no idea how often a flood is likely to happen to my property, and I have no idea what impact this will have on things like insurance.

Whose fault is it that I only discovered this today?

I don't know whether to blame myself, my solicitor, the home report or the seller, or the valuation I had to have done because Halifax wouldnt lend based on the home report valuation

Is there anyway to find out how likely a flood is to occur somewhere within a flood plain?

Thanks for any advice...

ukcarper

Could Try EA site http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=531500.0&y=181500.0&topic=floodmap&ep=map&scale=3&location=London,%20City%20of%20London&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&textonly=off

googler

It is, indeed, a pane when a house is on a flood plain.

sismith42

ukcarper wrote: »

Could Try EA site http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=531500.0&y=181500.0&topic=floodmap&ep=map&scale=3&location=London,%20City%20of%20London&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&textonly=off

Brush up on your geography, the Kelvin's in Scotland, under SEPA's jurisdiction ;-)
http://sepa.org.uk/flooding/flood_map.aspx

OP, these maps are prepared by hydrologists on typically a 1:100 or 1:200 risk of flooding. The probability is meant to be that, for every 100 (or whatever) years, there will be one year that sees a flood for that area of the plain. However, with climate change, changes to rivers by people, etc, some places get "1 in 200" floods every year for 5 years (eg the Mississippi river in the US).

I'm surprised you found out after you completed, rather than that being another detail your lender wanted known, first... ps, HOW exactly did you find out?

SuperBOB

sismith42 wrote: »

Brush up on your geography, the Kelvin's in Scotland, under SEPA's jurisdiction ;-)
http://sepa.org.uk/flooding/flood_map.aspx

OP, these maps are prepared by hydrologists on typically a 1:100 or 1:200 risk of flooding. The probability is meant to be that, for every 100 (or whatever) years, there will be one year that sees a flood for that area of the plain. However, with climate change, changes to rivers by people, etc, some places get "1 in 200" floods every year for 5 years (eg the Mississippi river in the US).

I'm surprised you found out after you completed, rather than that being another detail your lender wanted known, first... ps, HOW exactly did you find out?

When I was applying for home insurance one question was "Are you near water?" I then checked the SEPA map.

pixiepie99

sismith42 wrote: »

Brush up on your geography, the Kelvin's in Scotland, under SEPA's jurisdiction ;-)
http://sepa.org.uk/flooding/flood_map.aspx

OP, these maps are prepared by hydrologists on typically a 1:100 or 1:200 risk of flooding. The probability is meant to be that, for every 100 (or whatever) years, there will be one year that sees a flood for that area of the plain. However, with climate change, changes to rivers by people, etc, some places get "1 in 200" floods every year for 5 years (eg the Mississippi river in the US).

I'm surprised you found out after you completed, rather than that being another detail your lender wanted known, first... ps, HOW exactly did you find out?

Just to clarify, a 1 in a 100 year flood does not mean that flood will happen once in every 100 years. It means there is a 1 in 100 (i.e. 1%) chance the flood will occur in any year.

For a one in a thousand year year flood there is a 0.1% chance a flood of that severity will occur in any year.

Is the house you have bought a new build? If so, flood risk will have been taken into account during the planning process and the local authority must have been satisfied that the risk of flooding has been addressed, for example through flood defences or measures incorporated into your home.

If it is a new build you should be able to access the planning application online through your council's Public Access system and download the flood risk assessment.

Hope that helps!

Sensible_Jess

OP -
I bought a 1930's house which was approx. 170m from the river, in an elevated position with no history of flooding but still some insurers wouldn't insure the house for building / contents as I had to say 'yes' to the 'are you less than 200m from any water' question.

Computer says 'no'.......:wall:

I agree with pixipie with checking on your local council website. Even if you are not in a new build, there may be developments near your area which have more information regarding assessments buildings on the flood plain.

Not sure about the situation in Scotland, but would the searches carried out prior to purchase have any information on the risk of flooding?

S-J

Cissi

SuperBOB wrote: »

When I was applying for home insurance one question was "Are you near water?" I then checked the SEPA map.

This is where I'm eternally grateful to the powers that be (or whoever!) for helping us find an excellent solicitor when we bought our first house in this country 15 years ago... We've stuck with him for every sale/purchase since then and he's saved us from a few potential disasters. No way would he ever have let us exchange contracts unless we had been able to arrange home insurance first (this was an issue especially in our last house purchase - a Victorian house in an area that is generally prone to subsidence). If the Scottish system doesn't provide a safeguard for something as basic as this then I'm actually starting to see the advantages of the protracted English housebuying process!!!

PasturesNew

How did you find out ... chatting to a neighbour who said "well, they did do it up nice after that big flood we all had"? Or, looking at online maps?

SuperBOB

PasturesNew wrote: »

How did you find out ... chatting to a neighbour who said "well, they did do it up nice after that big flood we all had"? Or, looking at online maps?

Through the SEPA website, it has a flood plane map - my new postcode is G20 0UD. We are slap bang in the middle of a flood plane.

Pupnik

Do you know how severe the floods are in that region? I grew up in a house in a flood plane and it was fine, it has flooded twice in the last 30 years but it is not an area with severe floods, just a foot or so of water, I can't remember how long they lasted- maybe a week? The main problem was that the first time it flooded there was a problem with the sewers so the water was unclean but we fixed that before the second time. The house is over 500 years old and still standing solid after presumably multiple floods each century so I don't think flooding is going to really do major damage unless you are in an area where flooding is severe and makes your home impossible to live in and causes huge amounts of damage.