Buying a House with an obvious Flood Risk

steppevos

Some more considerations:
Flood zone 3: outlines areas that are expected to flood with a chance of once every 100 year or more often! Some parts of flood zone 3 will flood every year. (flood zone 2: chance between once every thousand to once every 100 years). The dividing line between zone 3 and 2 is the estimated once in a hundrend year frequency.
I have run simulations for flooding in a part of Holland in the past to look at impact that climate change could have. To me it isn't clear if the flood maps have taken climate change (and potential physical changes in the future) into account for these maps and to what extend (this is an ongoing process and the current predictions seem to point towards still more rain in general and an increase in intensity when it falls). Also it is good to keep in mind that the results of these simulation studies are very rough because of the accuracy of the models (both for terrain and rain patterns).
These flood maps don't take account of sewers overflowing. When streams/rivers rise, the sewers will also start to back up and may overflow in areas considerably higher than the flood waters. This applies more to streams were the high water is closely together in time with when the high rains fall, then in rivers were the high peak of water can come several days/a week after the rain has fallen.
My personal choice would be to definately avoid areas in floodzone 3. I may consider the lower risk part of zone 2, but I would want a lot more local information.

My personal advice would be if you're happy to deal with this house flooding every five years then go ahead otherwise it may not be for you.
Also be aware that very few people are willing to buy in flood zones so again if you may consider selling the property again in the next 5 to 10 years then you should keep in mind that it is likely to take a long time or if it floods in that period it will really become hard to sell. Lowering the price may not even help, because people will become even more suspicious.

JP08

booksurr wrote: »

OK... one of my properties is in flood zone 3 (1:100). My area made the national news when it did indeed flood and the water was within 1 inch of my neighbours front door. The police closed the roads on the whole estate so I could neither enter nor exit that property in a vehicle. The water in the street was above my gumboots :embarasse but i did not catch a contagious disease :cool:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26199631

I have owned it since 1991 and have not had any insurance on it since 1993 when a mortgage lender could no longer force you to take out insurance. I have my own defences ready to be deployed, and in the meantime do not see why I should pay a significant premium to an insurance company for something which will not affect me. I bought in full knowledge of what was there and I choose to ignore it .

Are you now informed enough to make your own decision based on my attitude to risk?

Again, obviously not . But ... I am curious as to the defences you have ready to be deployed, and whether they worked ?

And I'm also slightly confused by the available data on the data.gov site.

Looking at this map MAP I find the property concerned is apparently in zone 3 (if you switch on the Flood Maps for Planning Layer about 4/5ths of the way down the list. But above the 1/1000 level if you switch on the Risk of Flooding from Surface Water (a few entries above Planning One), though the lower garden area is threatened (which kind of looks right from the lie of the land).

Slightly more interestingly to me, the opposite applies for my current house (which is close to a major river - the Ouse - but apparently above flood zone 2) ... with no insurance penalty.

agrinnall

I don't think your map link has worked, it just shows the whole of the British Isles plus a large chunk of the North Atlantic, so we're not really any the wiser (although there is a lot of water on the map!).

JP08

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't think your map link has worked, it just shows the whole of the British Isles plus a large chunk of the North Atlantic, so we're not really any the wiser (although there is a lot of water on the map!).

It does work - and rather well considering its a .Gov site. You have to zoom in to your desired area (but not too far or the map layer blanks out) then "tick on" the layers you want to see on the left. Some of them have two tick boxes - generally the lower of the two have the desired result.

steppevos

Slightly more interestingly to me, the opposite applies for my current house (which is close to a major river - the Ouse - but apparently above flood zone 2) ... with no insurance penalty.

You can be straight next to a river, but if you are 10 meters higher then you are unlikely to flood in most cases (especially when there is a flood plain on the other side of the river).

JP08 wrote: »

It does work - and rather well considering its a .Gov site. You have to zoom in to your desired area (but not too far or the map layer blanks out) then "tick on" the layers you want to see on the left. Some of them have two tick boxes - generally the lower of the two have the desired result.

What agrinnall meant was that we still don't know where the house is that you're considering buying. So we can't give any more specific advice.

I find the follow map more helpful then the one you quoted: Environment Agency

vqmismatch

Assuming the finances could be made to work it sounds great.

I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

agrinnall

JP08 wrote: »

It does work - and rather well considering its a .Gov site. You have to zoom in to your desired area (but not too far or the map layer blanks out) then "tick on" the layers you want to see on the left. Some of them have two tick boxes - generally the lower of the two have the desired result.

It doesn't, because the map is centred in a point in the Atlantic to the west of Ireland, so zooming in simply takes you to a patch of sea.

JP08

The map does work - it zooms in where the mouse pointer is pointing - and you can "left click and drag" like in Google Maps ...

booksurr

JP08 wrote: »

I am curious as to the defences you have ready to be deployed, and whether they worked ?

1. understand the lie of the land at a micro level. My house is on land that is some 5 inches higher than my neighbours garden. I have a large garden and the slope can be measured although not necessarily obvious to a casual glance

2. The house is cavity wall construction but does not have a suspended wood floor therefore there are no sub DPC air bricks. The pointing is maintained in excellent condition. There are no floor to ceiling windows, therefore the only entry point for water that is not at least 3 feet deep is the doors. All doors have rubber seals I have installed myself. These are permanent fixtures but are not proof against being submerged, therefore I have door barriers ready to install when I get the enviro agency flood alert notification. Obviously that assumes someone is home to install them, so all in the house can do it and are "made" to practise it on occasion in case I am not home. Being caught out whilst asleep remains a risk, but that is what weather forecasts and looking out the window are for. My barrier is home made, but this is the principle http://stormguardfloodplan.com/flood-barrier/
I accept that my garage defence is poor and will probably fail due to inability to get a good seal across it width. I am considering installing a permanent lip to provide a much better mating surface.

3. The chances of my precise house having to face floodwater more than 2 feet deep is remote due to the lie of the land on this floodplain. 2ft of water at my door would be 9ft elsewhere at which point it would not be a flood, it would be a major national emergency involving tens of thousands of displaced people. Study of contour maps and talking to my university colleagues from hydrology informed that assessment My door barriers are therefore 3 ft high and so can still be stepped over when fixed in place to allow us to come and go if needs be without removing them or having the complexity of ones that can be opened.

4. They work in principle as a model of them has been tested in the university water tank! In 26 years I have yet to put them to an actual test - largely because of 1 above....

Hope that helps...

bmthmark

When ever I buy a property I always ask myself the question: "Can I sell quickly if needed?"
If the answer is no I wouldn't even look at the property.
If you have any doubt then so will potential buyers and the fact that its been on the market for over a year I would even look at it.
Its a big 'No' from me.

But good luck in you decision.