Surface water flood risk on first time home

RHF2020

Hi,
I'm a first time buyer currently looking at a few potential properties. One of my favourites has a high risk of surface water flooding on the environmental agency website. From what I've read, these ratings are assessed by local councils and can be speculative in nature. Certainly, there have been no recent instances of flooding at the address, despite Leeds as a region having some serious flooding episodes in the 2010s (2015 in particular was a bad one). And its risk from rivers and waterways is considered "very low".

If I was going to live there until retirement etc. I'd probably accept the risk, but there is a strong possibility I'll be looking to upsize after 5 years or so, and the worst thing would be to be left with an unsaleable property. I also note the house has been on the market for several months despite appearing to be excellent value, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. Is there any sort of source or way I can really dig into the risks before I go down the road of making an offer? Ultimately, I'd expect the surveyor to have good information on it, while if there is too high a flood risk I can also presume the bank simply won't lend to me. But going down this road will cost hundreds of pounds, and I'd really like it if I can look at some historical data or understand how the banks and insurers view it.

What does surface water even mean? From what I've read, it could just mean some large puddles on our road which is not really an issue.

Falafels

Whereabouts are you thinking of? Do you have a link to the property?

It's just that I noticed that there were flood alerts in the locality of our proposed purchase in Earlsheaton last week, but we had a look and there was nothing untoward, despite flooding in many areas of Yorkshire; ours is classified as very low risk.

There's more about what 'surface water' means here: https://www.onthemarket.com/content/buying-house-flood-risk-area/#:~:text=In%20coastal%20areas%2C%20unusually%20high,flash%20floods%20that%20follow%20thunderstorms.

As you will see from the article, it's not just about the resale of your property, but buildings and contents insurance. My partner is a landscape architect who specialises in flood alleviation schemes; he wouldn't entertain the thought of buying a property with a high risk rating.

p00hsticks

I've always taken 'surface water' flooding to mean cases where the local drainage system can't cope and rainwater either can't run away or, worse still, starts to come back up through the drains. I'm aware of a couple of cases close to us in the past, caused by a combination of heavy rain, blocked gutters / drains and being positioned at the botttom of a hill - the roadside gutters and drainage couldn't cope with the amount of rainwater and the water instread ran straight down the road and into the house situated at the bottom of the hill. After it happened a couple of times I believe the water company installed extra drainage / larger pipes.

The problem has been exacerbated in many urban areas by people paving over their front gardens to provide parking, leaving no ground for rainwater to soak into, and it's the main reason why such work requires the paving to be permeable to rain water.

RHF2020

Thanks for this advice. I just played around with my current insurer, and my contents insurance would only cost £10 a year if I moved to the address in question. I presume this means they don't view it as particularly high risk!

ian1246

We're in the process of buying a house which is classed as at High Risk of Surface Flooding - and it is, it flooded in 2014 according to our  vendor - the 4th bedroom (downstairs extension) which is situated 3inches lower than the rest of the house had water ingress when the rear part of the garden went underwater (the front & side parts of the garden are a bit higher than the back section of the garden). This water run off will have come from the fields near to the property - flooding our future house & the neighbouring property. Between the field & properties is a ditch... which simply couldn't cope with the water run off, which had a single 9inch pipe installed. Since then, the vendor/neighbours have installed an additional 18inch pipe which has prevented any further repeats of the scenario.

In the recent (horrific) rain we had a walk to the house (its in the same village as our current house). The road was flooded around 50 metres from the house (in a dip which is a fair bit lower than the house) and the ditch behind the house was flooded - but the water was a good 6 inches below the height of the land on the "housing" side of the ditch.

As a result of this High Risk status (plus needing some TLC), the house has languished on the market since June 2020 before we offered in December 2020, having an extremely competitive offer accepted. The house needs mostly cosmetic work, but does need the soakaway's expanding for the guttering (the house is a 1850's cottage which has been heavily extended). 

So... basically it comes down to what your personal preference is. Our insurance is going to be around £450 due to the flooding in 2014 - but once we hit 10years after the flooding, that drops down to £180ish for some providers. 

For us? The risk is worth it. We love the house (very generous living space & very large garden. Also extremely quirky/unique), its in our perfect location and the work required isn't daunting - I can sort the soakaway myself (Lots of manual digging and spending maybe £500 on pipes, a silt trap, soakaway crates & sand and ensuring its 5+metres away from the house & 2.5+metres away from the boundary).

As for the flooding? I plan to build a bund around the lower part of the garden....
building a bund embankment to protect from flooding - flowerpotman landscape gardener

Except the Bund will only need to be (at maximum) around 2ft high and 2ft wide - so basically dig a 1ft wide 2ft deep trench, fill it with clay soil (to stop seepage), then on top of that simply build a 2ft wide (6inches overlap either side of the "trench) and 2ft high raised flower bed (via posts & decent wood or possibly sleepers) along the perimeter of the lower part of the garden ("merging" into ground of the higher part of the garden), with the first 1ft in height of the "flower bed" consisting of predominantly clay soil (heavily compressed) and then the last 1ft simply being normal soil for planting nice-plants etc...

It will take a lot of time & effort to do, but once done it should hopefully prevent any repeats of 2014 in the event the expanded drainage fails (so far they haven't). It will also look fairly tidy (hidden as a flower bed).... and should be pretty cost effective to do & can be done by myself without requiring to pay a professional..

Its worth noting there are no rivers or streams anywhere near the property (miles).

lookstraightahead

We live in a town that floods a lot - natural flooding from rivers. Our property doesn't, I can't comprehend anyone wanting to live somewhere with a high possibility of flooding, it's miserable.

sevenhills

I know from past searches this road has a flooding risk, post a link to the street in question?

Its at the very bottom of a BIG hill, but as never flooded, that I am aware of.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/property/churwell/new-village-way/

RHF2020

The road in question is called Waterside Court in Rodley, which sounds like an ominous name! However, the "waterside" in question is a canal which I understand has minimal flood risk, hence the environment agency saying the risk of flooding from waterways is very low. Is there a way you can look up street by street flooding records? That would give me the biggest peace of mind; I think the development is less than 20 years old, but if it's had a clear run in that time I would feel much more comfortable.

davidmcn

RHF2020 said:

I think the development is less than 20 years old

In which case you may well be able to find more detailed reports on flood risk among the planning papers.

sevenhills

This will give you some information.

https://www.gov.uk/check-flood-risk