When should I declare previous floods?

ILoveSittingDown

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pumas

If you were wanting to buy, when would you like to know?

Justonemorecupoftea

I'd discuss it with your agent as they may be aware of the best way to raise it. They could possibly talk about it in terms of general improvement to the property "and they've also installed some new drainage to address previous surface water... a lot of houses in this area have this issue as you'll see from any local searches you have done blah blah..." If it's genuinely an issue for that estate/village/part of town then having remedial measures could be ok.

As I understand it, if someone pulls out of the purchase because of the property and future viewers ask why, the EA will have to tell them anyway.

carefullycautious

I have seen one recently that had its flooding history on the listing which cuts out the time wasting that could go on, until you are told, only to back out of purchase. If people know upfront it would sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak

lookstraightahead

I would say before viewing. 

steadfast123

I had a similar issue in that I was selling a house that had had an insurance claim for subsidence- a known issue with the row of terraces due to the land they were built on. I decided to mention it in the listing as I knew the house would get a lot of interest. I didn’t want to waste mine and other people’s time by having lots of viewings only for people to run a mile when they found out. I priced it to sell and fortunately it sold very quickly to BTL investors who were already aware of the issues with the row. 

Good luck 

olgadapolga

lookstraightahead said:

I would say before viewing. 

This. 

I went to view a house that had previously flooded several times but wasn't told this until actually at the viewing. The EA wasted my time by not saying that it had flooded. I was seriously annoyed about this as there was no way I would even contemplated making an offer for such a property. 

However, it's not all doom and gloom as that property did sell eventually and it's flooding history was worse that you describe.

eddddy

Discuss it with the estate agent.

The EA has a legal duty to disclose 'material information' to prospective purchasers - and a flooding history is likely to count as 'material information'. So leave them to decide the best way to disclose the info.

And it's the EA who would be chastised (or even potentially prosecuted) for breaching consumer protection laws, if they didn't disclose 'material information'.


FWIW, The Property Ombudsman seems to suggest that this type of info should be disclosed before viewing - so that potential buyers don't waste travel costs and time - if they would not have viewed the house, if they had known about the flooding.

Davesnave

There's a lot of difference between a house that has had flash surface water flooding through inadequate measures being taken against it and a property where the surrounding land is inundated at intervals because of river flooding. In the latter case, with water backing up through the drains etc there's little hope without a major public scheme, but with surface water there's often a chance to deflect or capture it before it causes a problem.

A house close to my property had a surface water problem. According to an old newspaper clipping it had water from the nearby field through it to a depth of 0.4m in the1960s. Measures were taken at some time after that, but modern ploughing by idiot contractors created greater run-off and there were further incursions into the rear yard until about 2015. At that point, a new over-specified drain was installed that runs under the yard and since then there have been no problems at all. I suppose digging up the yard and part of the road with hiring traffic lights and so on might have cost up to £15k, but that's a small amount relative to the value of the property (about £350k)

If it's fixable, or if it looks like it's been fixed, someone will want it at a sensible price.

dinkylink

Justonemorecupoftea said:

I'd discuss it with your agent as they may be aware of the best way to raise it. They could possibly talk about it in terms of general improvement to the property "and they've also installed some new drainage to address previous surface water... a lot of houses in this area have this issue as you'll see from any local searches you have done blah blah..." If it's genuinely an issue for that estate/village/part of town then having remedial measures could be ok.

As I understand it, if someone pulls out of the purchase because of the property and future viewers ask why, the EA will have to tell them anyway.

To me this seems an excellent way of approaching it. Turning an issue into a selling point...