Searches - Flood question

The_Pixi

Hi everyone,

just had our searches back on our property and they have all come back fine except the flood search.

The report says that there is no historical flooding and the environment agency does not place the property in a flood risk zone.

However, the report has a high flood risk alert for surface water flooding? possibly up to 1 meter with a 1 - 75 chance!

The report also says remedial defenses may cost £2-£6k, how does this affect our insurance? The report says it has never flooded, but it might?

Has anyone else had this? and what did you do?

pyrolizzie

We have just had a problem with a house purchase. Environmental search shows property on flood plain zone 3 (i.e. a 1 in 75 chance of flooding), which is the highest level, even thou Enviro agency have no historical data/knowledge of property ever been flooded.

The Property was in fact flooded in flash floods in that area in May 2007 due to drains not able to cope with the water.

I used 4 insurance compare websites and had to tell them about the flood as it was 6 years ago, that was not a problem, however the problem was that it lies on a flood plain zone 3, and from the bank of hundreds of insurers, I could only get half a dozen to quote and then the premium was through the roof, and some were stipulating massive excesses of £2,500 if the property ever flooded again.

The advice we have since received from solicitors and other people in the insurance industry is not to buy the property and to pull out.

Remember the flash floods in Sheffield in 2007 when the River Don burst its banks and Ulley reservoir was in danger of been breached and many other towns/villages were under water and this also happened in areas that are not on flood plains and are not normally prone to flooding, therefore flooding can happen to anyone, but you would usually expect in an area that is prone to flooding.

jbainbridge

We had exactly the same with our recent purchase - the flood report showed the end on the road being in a dip and so if the drains failed / backed up it would flood. We bought on the basis -
- no history of flooding
- new drains, so hopefully better
- other houses were at the bottom of the dip (and would go first!!)
- surveyor friend pointed out that many places would flood given enough water

Most important thing to do is make sure you can get insurance ... despite the flood report our insurance went down slightly moving to a larger house.

G_M

Go onto several insurance websites and get quotes.

The insurers will soon tell you if they have aproblemoffering cover.

Key Q will be 'Has it ever flooded'? so as long as you can answer 'No', it should be fine unless the insurer has identified the location as an issue - which you'll soon find out....

SomersetSaver

Hi

I've recently had trouble getting a new quote on a house with a flood zone 2 rating (1 in 1000 year risk of flooding) and the renewal has gone up £70 (which is a 1/3 increase); have also had to agree to a £5,000 excess.

The larger excess came in last year, but the lack of renewal offers via comparison sites has been quite a concern this year and one big insurer was unwilling to quote unless I got further information about the flood defences in the area. This is landlord insurance, so I don't know if the insurers are simply being more cautious with lettings than residential, or if it's just a general move to being more cautious.

It is about 1/2 mile from a river, generally uphill, but having seen the recent flooding I guess there is that concern. We may well have to look at flood defences ourselves....

ETA there has not been any flooding near it at all to date.

gogo2013

We had the same issue pointed out in the environment report months ago when buying a house. We asked around the neighbours they are said that area never be flooded. But one neighbour dis mention that this year their insurance premium doubled because of the flood risk, they changed the insurer, so far so good. But when we tried to get quote through the comparison site, as long as I mention there's a tiny brook within 200m of the property, majority of insurer won't give us a quote, the rest give higher premium. Then I called several big players in the market, some of them refused the cover after inputting the post code. So finally we pulled out. My advice, put the insurance first, maybe you don't think there's any chance to be flooded but if the insurance people do, there's high price to pay.