Buying first house - 'High Risk of Surface Water Flooding'

Jono987

Hi everyone, me and my girlfriend are in the process of buying our first home.
We have just paid the homebuyers report fee and are waiting for the lender to arrange the survey.
After checking the .Gov map, the street that the house is on is dark blue and classed as high risk of surface water flooding.
We  currently live literally round the corner (about 20 seconds walk) and know that in my lifetime (26 years) and my parents (50+) none of these streets have ever flooded.
We have done some rough insurance quotes and they come back around 250 / £300 so not too bad! The only thing worrying us is that the mortgage lender might not lend if its classed as high risk?
We are putting down 20% and will arrange the insurance before completion - does anyone know if the solicitor is likely to tell the lender when the searches come back and they might refuse to lend? Again its only the road - not the house, what we assume is the drains might not be great or something, but again i drive down the street everyday and even in heavy rain theres not that many puddles!

We are doing a second viewing on saturday and im tempted to ask the current owner what their solicitor searches said when he bought it? (He bought it 5 years ago in 2015).
Do you think ill get a truthful answer?

Thanks for any help i really appreciate it.

Davesnave

As you've lived in the area for a long time, you would have heard if mortgages were difficult to obtain in these roads. It's very likely that lenders will take a pragmatic view, as insurers do, waiting until flooding happens, instead of imposing sanctions based on a map of possibilities.

ACG

The road outside my house is high risk of surface water. I have lived here for 2-3 years and there has been some pretty big downpours in that time and we have never had any problems, I mean not even to the point where it took 10 minutes for the water to clear, so I am not entirely sure how they work out the risk but I think half the country would need an ark before our road was under just an inch of water for anything more than 10 minutes. 

ciderboy2009

From memory, surface water flood risk is assessed by local councils rather than the Environment Agency (who do the flood risks based on rivers, lakes etc).

Surface water risks are known to be inaccurate and are therefore quite often ignored by insurance companies.  i would therefore assume that Mortgage companies would also be likely to ignore them.

Jono987

ACG said:

The road outside my house is high risk of surface water. I have lived here for 2-3 years and there has been some pretty big downpours in that time and we have never had any problems, I mean not even to the point where it took 10 minutes for the water to clear, so I am not entirely sure how they work out the risk but I think half the country would need an ark before our road was under just an inch of water for anything more than 10 minutes. 

Thanks! When you put your postcode in, does it class as 'High Risk'? But then when you view the map its just the road?

ACG

Yes, its the road at the front of our house. 

Jono987

Thanks, interesting to know its the council who determines surface flood risk. I even contacted an insurance company and they said if the house had ever flooded their database would tell them. 

Davesnave

Jono987 said:

 I even contacted an insurance company and they said if the house had ever flooded their database would tell them. 

Almost correct. There are some properties that will have flooded where the owner may have decided not to claim or inform. This is particularly true of surface water flooding, where an event can be over in 10 minutes.

Jono987

Davesnave said:

Jono987 said:

 I even contacted an insurance company and they said if the house had ever flooded their database would tell them. 

Almost correct. There are some properties that will have flooded where the owner may have decided not to claim or inform. This is particularly true of surface water flooding, where an event can be over in 10 minutes.

Ah of course, makes sense! At least it means there hasnt been 'severe' flooding, as i would imagine anything bad would require a claim!

Davesnave

Sometimes it's serendipity. My neighbour happened to own a tractor, so when a stream of water poured down the lane and threatened to go straight through his house for the first time since his ownership began in 2002 he was able to quickly place large haylage bales and divert most of it. His house is like mine, about 20' above the stream so the chance of being flooded looks, and is, recorded as minimal.

theartfullodger

Just a standard phrase what with Storm Dennis coming in....