Flood Risk for House Purchase!

swest4

Dear all,

My wife and I are in the process of buying a house. The survey has come back and we've discovered that the house is in a flood risk zone 2 (quite close to a 3). According to the environment agency maps, this means that there could be 0.1-1% chance of flood per year. That doesn't sound much but flooding is surely every home owners worst nightmare.

I'm really keen on establishing more details about our particular risk before proceeding. I really want to get the most detailed and expert opinion on our flood risk - if possible for that particular property. Does anyone have any experience/advice/recommendations?

Thank you all in advance
Steve

Elinore

did the survey say something like 'if you want a more detailed review of this issue we will undertake a full flood risk survey or you can use 'blah blah company'?

mine did

swest4

No, it just said that the house was inside a flood risk zone 2 and that we should make sure, with our solicitors, that it had not been flooded before and could be insured under normal terms. I now want to really look into what the risks are. This was based on the EA flood map, which cannot predict risk for individual houses.

marksoton

swest4 wrote: »

Dear all,

My wife and I are in the process of buying a house. The survey has come back and we've discovered that the house is in a flood risk zone 2 (quite close to a 3). According to the environment agency maps, this means that there could be 0.1-1% chance of flood per year. That doesn't sound much but flooding is surely every home owners worst nightmare.

I'm really keen on establishing more details about our particular risk before proceeding. I really want to get the most detailed and expert opinion on our flood risk - if possible for that particular property. Does anyone have any experience/advice/recommendations?

Thank you all in advance
Steve

If you're really that paranoid contact your local environment agency office.

Davesnave

You should look at the place yourself and go into historical records too, if possible. Then, employ a specialist if you are unsure.

For example, a house built up on high foundations or on an old river cliff, now urbanised, may be broadly within flood zone two, but have very little exposure to river flooding. In other words, to be affected, perhaps half the town would have to be under water.

On the other hand, property near the base of a slope, may be at risk from a different type of flooding, which is surface water run-off. Here, for a short time, a home owner in the above scenario, could find water running through the house from back to front, instead of from a river.

MobileSaver

swest4 wrote: »

this means that there could be 0.1-1% chance of flood per year. That doesn't sound much but flooding is surely every home owners worst nightmare.

So the chances are that the property may flood somewhere between once in 100 years and once in 1000 years...

If you really are that worried then you'll need to employ a professional civil engineer to produce a detailed flood risk assessment for that house.

Fuzzyness

i'd speak to the neighbours and ask if and when they have been flooded if at all.

i own a house where part of the front garden is in flood zone 3 (although the actual house is on ground about 4 metres higher up) and getting buildings insurance was very tricky.

if you are so inclined you can ask a hydrologist to model the river flooding in detail and to advise you of the likelihood that the property will flood. notwithstanding this, it would only take some unprecedented rainfall and all models would go out of the window (as happened in the lake district last winter) and you'd be left with a soggy house. if it bothers you i'd look elsewhere.

G_M

* go to insurance websites and fill out property details - see if they offer you insurance and at what price
* talk to neighbours, postie, cornershop, publican etc and ask about flooding (you'll be doing that anyway to find out about the area yes?)
* check local paper for historical stories about local floods. Is the street mentioned? Photos?
* use common sense - is the property at the top or bottom of a hill or slope?
* google the street name

alumende27

Following up on the insurance, make sure that there are no special terms imposed that the lender, assuming you have a mortgage, will not agree to.

For example, I have a house with historic subsidence and the Woolwich insist the buildings insurance has no more than a £2,500 excess on subsidence claims.

It's also worth asking the current owners if they've ever had or are aware of any flooding to the property or have made any insurance claims for flooding. Maybe get them to do a statutory declaration, but that's something your conveyancer should be able to advise on.

Chanes

We had a flood risk warning on a house we owned because of the distance we were to the river. We disregarded it because if that river flooded it would have had to rise about 10 metres to have reached the road and I'm certain it would have broken the banks much further down before it could have done even that, I just looked over the topography.

Do some checks to put your mind at rest.

sheff6107

The current owner *has* to tell you whether they've ever been flooded.