Should we reduce our offer due to flood risk?

Crashy_Time

Tzili wrote: »

Alright. So a quick update. The sellers agreed a 5k pounds reduction.

They must be laughing their heads off if you accept IMO.

Davesnave

Tzili wrote: »

Alright. So a quick update. The sellers agreed a 5k pounds reduction.

Fine, but we still don't know what further research you did, and what, if anything, it revealed. £5k might buy enough surface water flood protection if all you need is a low deflecting wall, but without knowing the house, we're unaware of what measures might be needed.

Smodlet

Full Marx, OP.

Simby

Op I would not walk away I would run away as fast as possible.. are you really sure you want a property that could flood at some point even if it’s a low risk...

To me any risk of flooding makes the property a non starter... I bought on top of a hill.. it was one of my criteria... zero flood risk... so the entire town might flood around me but given my location I will not.

I discounted whole towns because they were in valleys and had flooded in the past 100 years... also look at the rising sea levels in 50 years and make sure that it is not a risk.. there are projections on the internet... again I discounted entire towns because in 50 years they might not exist due to global warming...

Dave_606

The property we are buying has a risk of surface flooding according the the searches that came back. Yet this surprised us very much seeing as the property is on a bit of a hill, hence why we had no reason to check. But then looking at the Environment Agency flood maps, there does indeed appear to be a risk of surface flooding for the street on a hill with no dip in it, which surprised me, more so that it appears to be a high risk. Yet zooming in that risk is completely confined to the road and either side of the road there is no risk on the path or the properties at all. Added to that, the property is further raised off the surface of the road by about 2ft anyway, yet I'm told there is still a risk all the same. So I really don't get some of the flood risk issues unless historical prior to improved road drainage, but still on a hill?.

PasturesNew

Agents will have known of past sales being hindered by buyers discovering it's a high flood risk, so they'll have priced it accordingly in the first place.

On the other hand, if you don't ask, you don't get.

Have you googled for images of flooding in that road? If it's flooded in the last 5-10 years there'll have been loads of people taking snaps and posting them online because that's what people do.

Davesnave

Dave_606 wrote: »

The property we are buying has a risk of surface flooding according the the searches that came back. Yet this surprised us very much seeing as the property is on a bit of a hill...

Being on a hill doesn't make a surface water flood unlikely at all; it increases the risk, if there is land above the property from which water might flow. It might only be for half an hour that extreme conditions persist.

But as you've discovered there are other factors connected with individual houses which could mean that they won't flood, even when the roadway outside does. Being 1/2m above the road is a good start! Flood maps can't allow for that.

We had one surface water flood at my old house in 21years. Thanks to the way we'd sloped our drive and the patio beyond, the water didn't even reach the walls of the house; it took the lowest route though the neighbour's garage instead, eventually pooling up at the end of the garden where it was briefly about 30cm deep. Half an hour later there was little to show it had happened.

Crashy_Time

Simby wrote: »

Op I would not walk away I would run away as fast as possible.. are you really sure you want a property that could flood at some point even if it’s a low risk...

To me any risk of flooding makes the property a non starter... I bought on top of a hill.. it was one of my criteria... zero flood risk... so the entire town might flood around me but given my location I will not.

I discounted whole towns because they were in valleys and had flooded in the past 100 years... also look at the rising sea levels in 50 years and make sure that it is not a risk.. there are projections on the internet... again I discounted entire towns because in 50 years they might not exist due to global warming...

Yes, what was "Occasional risk of flooding" 20 years ago or even now will probably be higher risk in future. price needs to be discounted to reflect this risk IMO.

Tzili

Simby wrote: »

Op I would not walk away I would run away as fast as possible.. are you really sure you want a property that could flood at some point even if it’s a low risk...

To me any risk of flooding makes the property a non starter... I bought on top of a hill.. it was one of my criteria... zero flood risk... so the entire town might flood around me but given my location I will not.

I discounted whole towns because they were in valleys and had flooded in the past 100 years... also look at the rising sea levels in 50 years and make sure that it is not a risk.. there are projections on the internet... again I discounted entire towns because in 50 years they might not exist due to global warming...

In our case, eliminating entire towns from the list was really not an option. The property is located in Warwickshire/West Midlands, so it will take a while for the ocean/sea to reach it in case of some "end of times" event.

Tzili

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Yes, what was "Occasional risk of flooding" 20 years ago or even now will probably be higher risk in future. price needs to be discounted to reflect this risk IMO.

The sellers are not part of a chain or anything like that. They are not in the position to be forced to sell. They are not paying for the property anymore. They are mortgage free. They could have just walk away straight away.

We didn't get exactly what we wanted in terms of numbers, but at least we got something. The front garden has the biggest risk. After clearing it (cause at the moment there are a lot of bushes and shrubs on the edges), we can hire some company to do a proper evaluation and come up with a plan.