Would you buy a home in a medium risk flood area?

[Deleted User]

The town has the River Tess running past it and there has been minor flooding in the high street in the past. The council has built good flood defences and the last time river levels were high there was about 6 inches of standing water in the high street.

The street the house is on has never flooded since its been built 15 years ago.

Would you buy here if you liked the house?
The house is classed as medium risk and has never flooded in the past.

Brightspark87

Hi

We re in the process of buying a house in a low flood risk area - however, did consider one in a medium risk area.

Now, we are in the position due to the area being close to the Severn. So much like your map here - we were worried about the flooding.

None of the insurers we spoke to had an issue, we did the flood report as part of the survey and it indicated that c15,000 houses would be flood if ours was too.

I think you should see if any insurance companies have an issue with the insurance, look at the local drainage too (such as we have lots of storm drains) and take your surveyors advice.

We were happy with the explanation that it had never flooded and looked at where it has historically flooded and made an informed choice to still go for it.

I suggest you might want to do this too?

Davesnave

It would depend on the exact circumstances.

On the EA map of the postcode you used, I can see that contour lines are fairly close together in some of the area, so property in those places would never be likely to flood from the river, even though they're quite close by.

They might still be susceptible to surface water flooding, however, so a complete site appraisal would be my choice, as well as talking to insurers.

Edit: Having ID'd the exact location, I'd not be happy. 15 years is nothing in flood history terms, and in my view, extremes of weather are only set to increase.

hazyjo

Yes. I had one in a high risk location (despite it never having flooded in the area). Small river (more of a stream or brook) behind back fence. Not everyone would insure (although most would), and it was a bit pricier.


Jx

DaftyDuck

Aside from the fact there's probably a Google StreetView car still trapped in that street, personally I would think several times - that's despite living oin the edge of a flood risk area myself. I don't see that much difference in height between river bank and house so, when it floods, it floods.

Several of the older, Victorian properties have had front doors altered for flood defence, or had doors moved to side of property, indicating some tangible risk. Many older properties are built high, up steps, indicating an (admittedly historic) flood risk. The housing and other building use is relatively low-grade, so no valuable Council/Government asset to protect.

The houses you are looking at are in no way unique, and I'm not sure they are particularly cheap compared to others with less flood risk (although those others may have other local issues).

I used to live about 20 miles to the south, and used Tyne-Tees (as it was then called) airport twice a week to commute for a few years, .... and the number of times I saw the river in flood (maybe not right over that street, though), would give me pause for thought.

So, personally, I would not buy that particular property.

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