Would you buy this house near floor zone / river?

markin

Hopefully the new model is more accurate, Im certain many homes have been flooded when they were meant to be safe.

Are the homes raised at all with steps or the land built up? I would want to confirm it really is 20+ ft

Davesnave

The map shown relates to flooding from rivers and not other types of flooding, such as that from surface water. It takes very considerable amounts of rainfall in most places to make a British river rise 20', but whether it has the capability to do that will depend on other factors, such as it's size, proximity to the sea and so on.

For example, we have a stream roughly 20' below our house, but it's so small there is only a capability for a rise of about 1' maximum, so we're perfectly safe. Those living near the River Wye recently, or on the Somerset Levels in 2014,  may have had a different experience, with water levels rising much more than a few feet.

Surface water flooding often happens fast and may be nowhere near a river. Our neighbour on the other side of the valley almost had run-off from fields through his property in 2012, but he  quickly built a barrier with hay bales to divert it. Until then, he thought he was immune to flooding because he lived on a slope.

To know whether the place at the red dot is 'safe' depends on more than its height above the River Cole.

Caraway90

No. I've seen photos of people's flooded homes this week and how devastating it is for them. I would not take the risk.

zagubov

I had a mate whose next door neighbours house was flooded but the water didn't touch his own .
He promptly put his house on the market and sold it ASAP while he could still honestly say his house had never been touched by floodwater.
I'd be very wary indeed. Talk to your future neighbours before committing.

davidmcn

zagubov said:

 Talk to your future neighbours before committing.

It's a newbuild estate so the neighbours won't know much relevant history. As mentioned above, the planning papers will have much more detail on flood risk than the bog-standard flood risk searches.

mattyprice4004

Over 6m above the risk area would be enough to put my mind at ease - by the time it's at my front door, the neighbours houses down the hill will be invisible! 

[Deleted User]

It's a "no" from me.
People underestimate the amount of damage caused when your house floods.
In 2000 we lost everything in a flood as the house was a bungalow.  'Everything' means everything.  All clothes, furniture, books, pans, etc as everything was contaminated by sewage.
Just to give you an idea of what a house looks like after a flood here are some photos of our house (hallway looking into front room).

A bathroom


And a bedroom

I just would not take the risk buying a house so close to a river and where a neighbouring property has already flooded.

thearchitect

I'm not sure it was OP that said the adjacent house flooded or another poster talking about his friend on a different site.

OP, could you give us a postcode so that we could have a look ourselves? 

ETA:  Don't worry, I've found it.   I'm not convinced from Streetview that it's as much as 20ft.  Mind you, it's also more of a burn that a river.  You'll want to get to flood risk assessment submitted with the planning application to decide.

thearchitect

Okay, the flooding report was undertaken in 2012 - so a bit old - and can be found at:

https://publicaccess.solihull.gov.uk/online-applications/files/B3820C84EAC1AB0F4F01A155C8E50C2E/pdf/PL_2012_01568_FULM-amended_flood_risk_assessment_and_drainage_strategy-389787.pdf

Page 19 is the key one.  It says most of the site and all of the development area is low risk.  I think what I'd be asking (a flooding expert, not a layman) is whether English guidance - which in my view has always been weak on flooding - has changed such as to change those gradings during the intervening period.

Personally I'd be also want to know whether the "my" house was on one of the old gravel pits.

Debt

I would only buy with a 50% reduction in asking price, and spend all the remaining money on flood insurance.