How to establish flood risk?

In_For_A_Penny_2

Hi,
Any thoughts/advice welcome. FTB and all this is new so go easy.

We are currently looking to buy in N.Ireland. We have found a house we like but noted a small stream behind the property (about 50m) from house and about 3m below the level of the house.

I enquired about flood risk and the EA said there was a history of one episode of flooding about 10years ago but didn't know the details.

Is there anywhere I can find more information? I guess I could contact the vendor directly but unsure if this is the "done thing"?

I have looked at the only published flood maps I can find online: http://www.dardni.gov.uk/index/rivers/flood-maps-ni.htm
and it is not mentioned as having a history of flooding.

If possible it would be nice to have more information before appointing solicitors and paying for dedicated assessments only to find out it is high risk and have to pull out.

EDIT - Are insurance companies likely to have information pertaining to risk in a particular area and previous history of flood claims? If so is it worth phoning a few companies for quotes?

itsnotarace

Not sure if this is of any help to you, but we bought a house with a river backing onto our back garden a few years ago - it's about 15metres from the house and maybe 6m below the ground floor level.
I can't ever imagine buying a house close to water ever again.

The area has been upgraded with multi million pound flood defences in recent years and our back garden is in no danger of flooding.

There was a flood in the late 80's though that reached peoples garden in the street and that's on record so we faced an unforeseen issue when trying to get home insurance.
We naively thought that although our old insurer may up the cost of it, there would be no problem. The day before we moved house we had a bit of a nightmare trying to get insured.
In the end our insurance more than tripled and we had to shop around a lot of places to even get offered that (eventually using a broker.)

We even later paid SEPA (we're in Scotland) to produce a flood report confirming we were in a tiny danger of flooding, but it meant little (if anything) to prospective insurers. The report even said that if the river was raised to a level where it reached our house then the whole of Glasgow would have severe issues, and probably only a 1 in 100 year flood would affect us.

I would defiantly go through the process of getting online quotes for insurance to see if you'll hit an issue. I think the questions you get asked usually include one like
"Is your house within 50m (could be 100m) of running water"

In_For_A_Penny_2

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate there are quite a few unknowns in my case at present but you echo my concerns about having difficulty getting insurance. Seems that once it's on record it can be very hard to get around

Moby_Tide

I'd run searches for the postcode/address using the Onlinebrokers/comparison sites. The question about proximity to water will sort out which may offer and you will get quotes based on the mappings normally.

We're about 70m away and 3m above normal level from a river that is notorious for flooding lots of properties within 1/2mile in either direction up and downstream. Our quotes are no more than what we paid for our previous property nowhere near water. Building and contents for under £350(under £300 this year) for up to £500k/£75k cover. If the property is at risk of flooding then the insurers will be aware of it and the quotes will reflect it most likely

Thrugelmir

Closeness to water isn't the only factor. Natural springs can appear in the oddest of places if the water table rises due to a sustained period of rain. Any gradient water will flow.

G_M

* Check prices for insurance online
* talk to the neighbours and anyone else in the street
* ask the postman
* chat to the publican / corner shop ower
* do a search of the local paper for historic stories on flooding
* go in and speak to the local Planners

carlx

G_M wrote: »

* Check prices for insurance online
* talk to the neighbours and anyone else in the street
* ask the postman
* chat to the publican / corner shop ower
* do a search of the local paper for historic stories on flooding
* go in and speak to the local Planners

What G_M said ^ find older people with a history of living in the area, old people like to talk and in my experience, they literally know everything.