House in Flood Zone 3

AdrianC

BumWad wrote: »

and the vendors accepted our offer on the premise of no negotiation after survey.

<raises eyebrow> Mmmm... My cynical side wonders if there's a problem with the house that they know about and expect the survey to show...

[Deleted User]

As people have commented only you can decide if you can live with the risk.

Flood planning has improved since our house flooded. There was no flood watch scheme in our area in 2000 so we were not warned of the flood. We only knew our house had flooded when we came home from work and waded through waist deep water and sewage to rescue our cats. In fact when we rang the environment agency for news they kept saying that there was no problem and our village was not at risk of flooding and we had to keep telling them that we had already flooded and was in fact talking to them them whilst stood in water in our living room. It was only on the third day that help arrived in the form of the Fire Brigade and someone from the Council, but by then it was too late.

A few things to consider.

(1) If you are away from the house and get an alert how quickly will you be able to get home to put the flood defences in place?

(2) If the area floods and your defences work what will you do about leaving the house for food, taking children to school, work etc. Will you be happy to wade through sewage and water to do this? Will you be able to take time off work until the road drains of water? Will the time off be holidays, or unpaid leave?

(3) If the worst should happen and the place floods then expect to throw away lots of possessions. It is not just the carpets and furniture on the floor that gets wets, but things absorb water from the atmosphere. Books and clothing become damp and mouldy as do pictures on the walls. The ceiling in our hallway had to be ripped out and replaced. It had soaked up so much water that is was bowed and sagging in the middle. A lot of items are classed as condemned due to them being in contact with sewage water. We filled 5 or 6 skips of household items to throw away. These were the really big industrial sized skips you could drive a small car into. Items we lost included wedding photos, guitars, gifts people had given us in the past etc.

(4) It would be advisable to have some substantial savings in cash for if the worse does happen. Within a week of the house flooding we had spent about 3 1/2 thousand pounds in cash. £1,609 on rent and deposit for temporary accommodation, a new fridge, cat beds, cat bowls, bedding, underwear, shoes, clothing, food. It took about two months for the insurance to start paying out on the rent for temporary accommodation. So the first month we spent about £1,800 on deposit, rent and mortgage and the second month about £1,200 on rent and mortgage as the same time as losing wages from not being in work.

I am probably the most negative as I have been flooded and it really is bad. Only you can decide, but is it worth a gamble with such a lot of money and are you buying with your heart and not your head?

ClareTeaches

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

As people have commented only you can decide if you can live with the risk.
(Snip)
I am probably the most negative as I have been flooded and it really is bad. Only you can decide, but is it worth a gamble with such a lot of money and are you buying with your heart and not your head?

I wouldn't say you're being negative, but realistic. As you've said, only the OP can decide if they're willing to take the risk, but to make a meaningful decision, people need to know exactly what it is they're risking. It's very easy to see floods on the news and think it's a week's disruption, then forget about it when it's off our screens, but you've spelt out what it's really like.

It sounds like you've been through hell, but thank you for sharing. I hope things are a lot better for you now.

bigadaj

What are insurance quotes like?

pipster1969

Would a survey not show signs of damp if it had ever flooded? I'm not sure how flood water affects a building in that respect. We're buying a house in a flood risk area but it has never flooded, it flooded 3 miles away in the '40s and that's it, it's our perfect house so we're willing to take what I see as a very slim chance.

BumWad

Thanks again. Spider your scenario is exactly what scares the living daylights out of me! Being scared everytime it rains. And like another poster said if I am stressing this much now what would I be like living there?

On the other hand, insurance quotes have all come back fine. £280 per annum on average for buildings and insurance cover - that's with telling the insurance company on the phone that there is a water source nearby.

Pipster our flood report has come back as saying NO history of flood. Which makes this all the more confusing.

On another note our house sale is progressing quickly and if we pull out we may have to pay exit fees on our mortgage which we were going to port across as there are no other houses we have seen that we like, we will have to rent till that house comes along. Aaaarggh

pipster1969

But no signs of damp at all?

There are something like 5.5m houses listed at risk of flood in the country, I suspect hardly any of them have ever flooded, depends whether you're willing to the risk I guess.

[Deleted User]

pipster1969 wrote: »

Would a survey not show signs of damp if it had ever flooded? I'm not sure how flood water affects a building in that respect. We're buying a house in a flood risk area but it has never flooded, it flooded 3 miles away in the '40s and that's it, it's our perfect house so we're willing to take what I see as a very slim chance.

A house is dried out for months and months with industrial de-humidifiers after a flood. Then everything is replaced flooring, plaster etc. as it is all ripped out there is no damp.

pipster1969

I thought that might be the case.

Thrugelmir

pipster1969 wrote: »

We're buying a house in a flood risk area but it has never flooded, it flooded 3 miles away in the '40s and that's it, it's our perfect house so we're willing to take what I see as a very slim chance.

When torrential rain is a localised event. Water will appear from places in the ground you would never thought imaginable. One day.........

There again that's the whole point of insurance and the right level of cover.