Should we reduce our offer due to flood risk?

Tzili

Hello everyone,

Long story short. Some 2.5 months ago, we've put an offer of 325.000 GBP on a certain property. We are first time buyers. The offer got accepted, we've applied for mortgage successufully, our solicitor proceeded with his work. Due to some very nasty chest infection, our solicitor went off sick leave for some weeks. He got back last week and was able to send us the paperwork following the standard enquiries about the property.

It appears the property is located in an area with high risk of surface flooding. Reading about it, this seems to be quite a big deal as the cost involved to mitigate the risk ca be significant.

We are thinking to reduce our offer by 10.000 GBP. The property is a sort of a town house with front and back paved gardens. The first thing that comes into my mind is redoing the pavement to make sure the water would get away from the house walls (the current pavement is 17 years old and many/some blocks are already cracked or uneven). Most probably there are also some other things to be done.

Any advice on the matter?

Thank you so much for reading my post.

shortcrust

If I were the vendor I’d be really unimpressed. The maps are on the internet and it’s a pretty basic thing to check yourself before making an offer. It’s not the same as reducing your offer in light of new information that only a professional could provide such as a buildings survey.

00ec25

as someone with a property in a flood area if you came back to me with that as an "excuse" for lowering your offer I'd be straight on to my EA and tell them back on the market and find me a buyer who has done their due diligence first

sadly of course your lack of knowledge is one of the main down sides of selling a FTB property - having to deal with a FTB !

markin

Stick to the fact that the blocks are cracked and past their best, you may get 5k for it.

Unless its near a river im not sure i would think to check flood maps before putting an offer.

But as soon as the is a flood the value will drop, do you want that high risk of you being in negative equity?

Tzili

Thank you very much for your replies.

We are not natives to this country. This is our first time when we deal with these things.

But getting back to the main question, if this information is easily available, I wonder why did we pay for it? We did get a lot of papers back but still.

Regarding the blocks, we did not consider them a problem at the time of putting the offer. A potential surface flood is the main concern.

Even if we love this house, most probably we will walk away.

PS: No clue what FTB means.

Tzili

Ok. So looking on some gov website, this property is shown with a low risk of flooding. Now I'm really confused.

"All information, particularly the likelihood of surface water flooding, is a general indicator of an area’s flood risk. As such it is not suitable for identifying whether an individual property will flood. This service uses computer models to assess an area’s long term flood risk from rivers, the sea, surface water and some groundwater. It does not include flood risk from sources such as blocked drains and burst pipes."

Chandler85

FTB = First time Buyer


With regards to a flood risk, if the risk is surface water (e.g. from the rain, burst pipe etc) then you need consider the chances of it happening, it's probably less likely then a river flooding, although also more unpredictable.



How new is the property, has it every flooded before? If the house is 100 years old, and has never flooded, then what has changed if anything to make it flood now, worse weather, new building in the area reducing the general ability of the ground to soak up water.

AdrianC

markin wrote: »

Stick to the fact that the blocks are cracked and past their best...

Which would have been blatantly obvious to a casual observer on the first viewing, way before any offer was put in.

Besides, cracked paving slabs will make zero difference in the event of a surface water flood.

ProDave

Are you buying in an area where there are few houses for sale?

If not, I would be looking for another one that was NOT at flood risk, and checking the maps before making an offer, perhaps even before viewing.

Tzili

@Chandler85 The property is 17 yers old and the whole residential area is built on a tree preservation area (or something like that). My understanding is that there is no public water drainage in close proximity.

@AdrianC indeed. We put the offer based on what we saw and presented with. Regarding the pavement, it pretty much depends on the volume of water involved...I would assume. A first thing I would do is changing the pavement to make sure is levelled in such a way the water will stay away from the walls as much as possible. Most probably there are companies dealing with such mitigation actions.

Tzili

@ProDave it's not a casual thing to see properties for sale in that area. Looking on rightmove, it appears people are living there for many years before selling