Flood Risk?

JosieDixon

Hi
We've been living in our house for over 10 years now, through heavy rainfalls and had no sign of flooding or water even reaching our garden, the nearby brook has not even reached the top of it's culverted banks. Conversely half a mile down the road is a business park which has seen flooding in this time from the same brook.
When we purchased our home we checked with the environment agency for risk of flooding and none was shown in the vicinity of our house.
I tried to get renewal quotes yesterday from confused.com only to find that they refused due to our postcode.
When I logged into the environment agency website it showed us as being right in the middle of a high risk area but strangely the area that has been flooding showed as no risk at all?
This has more than doubled our insurance and some companies won't consider us. Does anyone know of a way to query the environment agencies ratings as this seems to be grossly unfair.
Thanks.

mattymoo

The EA maps are an extremely blunt tool and take the worst case scenario every time. They do not take flood defences into account either.

A couple of things you could try.
- Get a quote from Norwich Union Direct. They carried out a massive survey programme 4-5 yrs ago. They overflew the whole of England (not sure about Scotland etc) with a side scan radar or LIDAR (I forget which) system to produce very detailed terrain maps. They then overlaid water flow readings from all UK rivers and produced a very detailed flood map. They claim to be able to identify each house within a full postcode (normally covers around 15 houses) and quote accordingly.
The idea was that you could have say 15 houses on a steep road leading down to a quayside. EA maps and most quote engines will say they are all flood risks so no cover. NU claim to be able to pick out those at the top of the slope and offer flood cover to them.
NU do not share this data with other insurers though as far as I know.

Second option.
Go to your local councils website and see if they have done a "Strategic Flood Risk Assessment". Some make this available on their site free of charge.
I do surveys for an insurance company in the Lincs / Cambs area. Parts of these counties are flat fenlands (similar to Holland) and the EA maps show they are at high risk of coastal inundation and river flooding.
This was putting companies off investing in the region so the local authorities got together and commisioned flood risk assessments from river surveyors - firms like Royal Haskoning. These very detailed maps and measurements are then used to set planning policy for the regions to ensure building is not allowed on the flood plains. They are a very useful tool but unfortunately some councils charge around £50 for a copy. Alternatively, it may only be viewable at the local council offices.

Unfortunately, you cannot really use the info you glean to argue with the online quote engines or call centre staff (it will go over their heads) but it is useful info to have.

Third option
Approach a local insurance broker. They will have argued the case hundreds of times with insurers on behalf of their local commercial and private customers and will know where they can place the business in order to get flood cover. This is how insurance used to be done before call centres and internet and it still has a role to play for cases like yours.

Mrs_Webb

Can anyone advise us please?

We bought our property from plan three years ago. We had environmental search done and it showed the property to be on a flood plain. The builders had to agree with the local council and Environment Agency to raise the land a certain height above the flood defences in the area to reduce the risk of flooding before planning permission was granted. This was done.

The mortgagee was informed of all of this and we took insurance with them and all happy. Now three years on even though we have not been effected by any floods we have had news from our insurers that unless we provide an Environment Agency report at our expense they will no longer offer us insurance. Can they do this?

Please can someone help as many insurers will now not quote in light of recent circumstances in other areas and time is running out for our renewal.

Thanks

Labman_2

Mrs_Webb wrote: »

...we have had news from our insurers that unless we provide an Environment Agency report at our expense they will no longer offer us insurance. Can they do this?

Thanks

The short answer is Yes....they are not compelled to renew your insurance year on year if they now think the risks are different from what they originally thought.

skdotcom

Norwich Union have the most accurate data available, so provided its genuinely a low risk they should in theory be able to offer decent terms. On the other hand their data may show a higher risk, and therefore they will be more expensive.

k-hkr

Hi, we are classed as been on flood plain as we are near a River. This land has been built up for nearly 40 yrs with no flooding therefore I have never experienced any problems with insurance cover. Recently we were hit by flooding but not by the river. This was due to firstly council negligence in not having a drain cleaning regime anymore to save pennies and also due to freak weather conditions meaning a heavy rain area was stagnent over our area for two days. Add to that Water authority pumping station nearby losing all its pumps and not getting to fix them for a day meant 1000`s of homes flooded.

Insurance taking care of it but am dreading renewal time. Will we even get cover now? If so the costs will be alot more and who was to blame? Not the river, not the householders. You cannot even blame the weather fully as many homes would of been saved if drains were cleaned and pumps had back up facility or were repaired.

Starfish99

Just to say that I own & rent out a house in Longford right in the middle of the flooded area in Glos. On Sunday evening as the situation was worsening I rang the recommended EA information number. I was asked for the postcode and first line of the address in Glos. This I gave to a real person or maybe not after outcome. An automated voice said there were no flood warnings on the severn for this area!!!! My husband said this had to be statement of the century!! Maybe it was a call centre in India? When I bought the property I obtained EA reports and was given a 1% chance of flooding. This has proved to be true as nothing short of a miracle occurred when the next door neighbour informed me that the water although deep at the start of my road (a short road) only got to the start of my driveway and is receding. So be wary of Environment Agency efficiency! Insurance in the future will be another matter.

IanSB

Mrs_Webb wrote: »

Can anyone advise us please?

We bought our property from plan three years ago. We had environmental search done and it showed the property to be on a flood plain. The builders had to agree with the local council and Environment Agency to raise the land a certain height above the flood defences in the area to reduce the risk of flooding before planning permission was granted. This was done.

The mortgagee was informed of all of this and we took insurance with them and all happy. Now three years on even though we have not been effected by any floods we have had news from our insurers that unless we provide an Environment Agency report at our expense they will no longer offer us insurance. Can they do this?

Please can someone help as many insurers will now not quote in light of recent circumstances in other areas and time is running out for our renewal.

Thanks

I am a Civil Engineering specialising in flood defence and flood risk assessment. In order for the builder of your property to get planning permission it is highly likely that they would have had to commision a consultant to undetake a flood risk assessment, which they would have had to submit to the EA for approval. You should be able to obtain this report from the developer, the EA or the council. Failing that if you can at least find the consultant that undertook the assessment they may be prepared to provide you with a copy (although they may want to charge a fee)

As someone working in the industry it would be very disappointing to find a relatively new property constructed in a undefended area at risk of flooding. Planning systems have been in place for the last few years to try and reduce the chance of this happening. If you can't locate the report it may be worth considering getting an expert to undertake a flood risk assessment for you. Your local EA office should have a list of approved consultants you can use. Try to use a small company (some may even be one man operations) as they will be cheaper than using a large company (such as the one I work for!), as these are targeted at the commercial sector and will almost certainly be more expensive. The report may cost you a considerable sum, but if you consider the impact that it could have on the value of your property you may consider it value for money. You must, however, bear in mind that it may not give you the answer your looking for!!

bigboy123

hi everyone,
i am in a process of buying a property located at the edge of the flood plain, in the environmetal search report they mentioned the property located in flood plain and the risk is high (its in zone 3 / zone 2, ie 1.3 - 1% out of 100 every year), the report also said the property was not flooded before. i wrote to local environment agency their report also mentioned the risk is high (1.3% out of 100) the property was not flooded before.the same thing mentioned in the property survey report as well. i got insurance quote for the property recently the rate looks similar to the property not located in flood plain.i have nt exchanged the contracts.still confused what to do? the prize of the property is comparable.not too low/high. is there any other way to find the flood risk other then these which i mentioned? am i going to face a big problem in the future? please suggest me, i would be really greatful for valuable suggessions
thank you
big boy 123

IanSB

bigboy123 wrote: »

hi everyone,
i am in a process of buying a property located at the edge of the flood plain, in the environmetal search report they mentioned the property located in flood plain and the risk is high (its in zone 3 / zone 2, ie 1.3 - 1% out of 100 every year), the report also said the property was not flooded before. i wrote to local environment agency their report also mentioned the risk is high (1.3% out of 100) the property was not flooded before.the same thing mentioned in the property survey report as well. i got insurance quote for the property recently the rate looks similar to the property not located in flood plain.i have nt exchanged the contracts.still confused what to do? the prize of the property is comparable.not too low/high. is there any other way to find the flood risk other then these which i mentioned? am i going to face a big problem in the future? please suggest me, i would be really greatful for valuable suggessions
thank you
big boy 123

The Environment Agency and Association of British Insurers (ABI) use a risk based approach to determine the likelihood of a property flooding. The high risk category that you refer to means that your property is at risk of flooding GREATER than once every 75 years. Unfortunately the EA are unlikely to be able to give you any more precise information than this although you should enquire to see if they can give you a more precise risk forecast (for instance specity whether it is close to the 1 in 75 risk line or nearer to the 1 in 25 year risk line). You must bear in mind that just because your property has not flooded in recent time does not mean it will not flood again. The risk EVERY YEAR is 1 in 75 or greater! You must bear this in mind if you decide to complete the purchase. Insurance companies will usually insure properties which haven't flooded recently but they do not promise to insure properties which are in the high risk category. As such if your property flooded a few years after you've purchased it, it could become more expensive and difficult to insure and also lower the value of the property. You should bear in mind that the general pubic are always more concerned by recent flood events than those which may have happened 20 years ago, even though the overall flood risk to the property remains the same. Ask yourself this question, would you even consider buying the property if it had flooded last year. I'm guessing the answer is no, and many prospective buyers would feel the same, even though the flood risk is exactly the same. If you are prepared to live with all of this risk then go ahead and complete the purchase, there are many things you can do to the property to make it more resilient to flooding. The other thing to investigate is whether the EA have built or are planning any flood defences in the area. If they are then you could benefit significantly from this as they wouldn't necessarily show up in the searches.

Sorry I can't be more help. Ultimately you have to ask whether you're prepared to live with the risk or not, and only you can answer that. Consider the value of the property, whether you could buy a similar property in a similar ara but outside of the risk zone. Consider the cost of reparing the property in a flood and whether you could afford increased insurance premiums. Also consider how much disruption you are prepared to live with in the event of a flood. A young single person may be able to put up with more hassle than someone who has young children. The main advice is to heed the EA's warning. Your house is in a flood zone and WILL flood at some time!

Flood_Info

If you write to the EA you can get flood information for your property for free. However this is not the information that has been agreed with the ABI, and as such insurance companies may not accept it. It is £25 to get the agreed information from the EA, and it should be a complete report. I would never go through a consultant for this information, as they are charged a lot higher, and will definately pass those costs onto you.