It's now impossible to get a mortgage for a house by a river

Aretnap

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Your dilemma is going to be a major headache for the current owners who may not be able to sell no matter what the price of the property

And with this in mind, are you sure you want to buy a house which may be difficult or impossible to sell in future depending on how the flood risk changes, and what happens in the insurance market?

dunstonh

The comparison sites and that sort of distribution focuses on the easy application/quick sale process. You need a specialist policy and your best place to get that is from a local broker.

mgfvvc

Our experience was that brokers advertising as "flood specialists" were pretty useless.

Direct Line were happy to insure a property by a river as long as it hadn't flooded in the last 10 years, so we went with them.

lizziesharples

I can echo the advise about Direct Line, from my experience that insurance group only ask about recent incidents and that won't include the flooding 16 years ago. However, the postcode will still be rated and if this is considered a high risk area it will increase the premium if they deem the property insurable.