Purchase of property close to stream and woods

dearface

Hi,

I’ve seen a property I like, however it has a few features which I’ve not had experience on before and wanted to get some feedback on.  The property is quite central in a large town.

1) at the rear of the property, not on the property itself, is a stream, 2m in width. It’s very slow flowing. I’ve checked online maps and the property itself is not marked as a flood risk - environmental survey will help confirm risk either way. Question I had though is on the practicalities of such (quite) urban rivers. Do people have any practical experience of the following?

- flies/mosquitos during milder weather?
- rats?
- river is 10m from the property, will it significantly increase general dampness in the property?

2) across from the stream is a small wooded area, which helps demarcate estates and is sometimes used by dog walkers. The trees appear to be ash and elm trees mainly and are quite tall, perhaps >10m in height. A couple of them overhang the property significantly, one even looks a little suspect and it’s top branches could touch the property if it fell. Clearly council have responsibility if tree fell on the property, questions though:

- are councils generally responsive to maintaining trees when asked by concerned residents or are they historically inflexible? Prob too generic a question but I’ve got no idea
- am I right to suspect this will have a significant impact on house insurance? And if branches overhang property I have a right and prob therefore requirement to maintain these overhanging branches too for insurance purposes?
- the wooded area in general does cast a fair bit of shade in the garden (evidenced by mossy areas on the grass which clearly struggle to dry out). How receptive are councils (very generalised question, I know!) to trim tree lines simply to improve sunlight?

3) any other considerations I may be missing with houses close to water/streams and woods?


Many thanks in advance!

ProDave

The main concern with the stream is not how far it is horizontally from the house, but vertically.  i.e. how does the water level compare to the floor level of the house or put it another way, how much would the water level have to rise to flood your house?

A slow flowing stream tends to suggest flat land, so if it does rise not many places for it to flow to, so it may rise a lot.

We have a small stream actually in the garden but it is fast flowing (we are on a slope) and in a deep channel so unlikely to rise enough to flood the house, it just gets higher and even faster in wet weather.  We also have trees in the garden closer than those you mention.

For insurance, go through a broker, declare the stream and the trees and anyone that accepts it has taken on that risk.  It did not seem to make our insurance any higher.  The point about going through a broker is you won't have to answer yes to "have you ever been declined insurance" which you might if you approached one insurer and they said no.

user1977

ProDave said:

The point about going through a broker is you won't have to answer yes to "have you ever been declined insurance" which you might if you approached one insurer and they said no.

I don't think that's right - go to the comparison sites and there's usually a whole bunch of insurers who don't want to insure you because you don't fit their market / risk profile - you don't need to declare them.

user1977

dearface said:

Clearly council have responsibility if tree fell on the property

Why is it clear the council have responsibility? Do you know they own the land?

theoretica

Are you sure about ash and elm?  Is there ash dieback disease in the area? 

Do not get any hopes up for the trees being trimmed for your sunlight - also check if they have preservation orders on them - which would stop you trimming overhang yourself.

housebuyer143

I am not sure you can argue that council have a responsibility to maintain every tree in a wooded area just in case a branch fell. 

Not only is it impractical, it's also impossible. That's what house insurance is for. 

ProDave

user1977 said:

ProDave said:

The point about going through a broker is you won't have to answer yes to "have you ever been declined insurance" which you might if you approached one insurer and they said no.

I don't think that's right - go to the comparison sites and there's usually a whole bunch of insurers who don't want to insure you because you don't fit their market / risk profile - you don't need to declare them.

Which is like going to a broker.

I was making the point, probably not very well, don't just phone your existing insurer to get a quote for this new house, because if they decline to insure it, that is something you have to declare when that "have you ever been declined insurance" question comes up.

eddddy

dearface said:

A couple of them overhang the property significantly, one even looks a little suspect and it’s top branches could touch the property if it fell. Clearly council have responsibility if tree fell on the property, questions though:

- are councils generally responsive to maintaining trees when asked by concerned residents or are they historically inflexible? Prob too generic a question but I’ve got no idea

If somebody else's tree falls on your house, it's generally your responsibility to pay for repairing the damage to your house - but you can usually claim on your insurance, if you want.

You would only be able to claim from the tree owner (the council?), if they had been negligent.

You are allowed to cut branches off other people's trees, if they overhang your property.

I think it's extremely unlikely that a council would prune a tree just to make your garden less shady.

If a tree was dangerous (e.g. part of it is dead and likely to break off), the tree owner would have a duty to make it safe.

Section62

dearface said:

I’ve seen a property I like, however it has a few features which I’ve not had experience on before and wanted to get some feedback on.  The property is quite central in a large town.

1) at the rear of the property, not on the property itself, is a stream, 2m in width. It’s very slow flowing. I’ve checked online maps and the property itself is not marked as a flood risk - environmental survey will help confirm risk either way. Question I had though is on the practicalities of such (quite) urban rivers. Do people have any practical experience of the following?

- flies/mosquitos during milder weather?
- rats?
- river is 10m from the property, will it significantly increase general dampness in the property?

The main issue with small streams in (semi)urban areas is their responsiveness to rainfall - lots of hard surfaces and efficient drainage systems quickly funnel water to the stream making the response 'flashy'.

A slow-flowing stream can rapidly rise to a torrent-like flow, albeit usually for a short period of time.  This is more of an issue with shallow gradients which aren't very good for moving large volumes, and a big red flag is where the stream passes through back gardens/woodland where debris can enter the stream and cause blockages.

Rats are a virtual certainty wherever you get open water.

Another issue is whether the watercourse is contaminated with sewage.  Even low-level pollution from a misconnected sink or shower can, particularly in hot weather, lead to problems with smell.

dearface said:

Clearly council have responsibility if tree fell on the property...

I wouldn't assume this, you need to confirm the situation in the area where you live.  Even if they are responsible, getting compensation may involve going to court to recover your full costs.

dearface said:

- are councils generally responsive to maintaining trees when asked by concerned residents or are they historically inflexible? Prob too generic a question but I’ve got no idea

Councils are generally fairly hot on inspecting and managing the trees they are responsible for, particularly those in the public realm where people could be hurt.  If there is a genuine problem, and you point it out to them, they are more likely to deal with it than not.

dearface said:

- the wooded area in general does cast a fair bit of shade in the garden (evidenced by mossy areas on the grass which clearly struggle to dry out). How receptive are councils (very generalised question, I know!) to trim tree lines simply to improve sunlight?

Much less likely.  They have other things to spend money on (e.g. maintaining potentially dangerous trees) and trees are good for the environment.  Maintenance of the tree will typically be limited to that required for the tree's health.

Lespaul1960

Hi dearface, I lived approximately 2m away from a small stream or brook as it was called. For about 20 years, this was in an urban area. I can tell you it was a near constant source of aggravation, it was basically a rubbish tip people upstream would throw God knows what in there.  Kids used to play in it causing problems.  It came pretty close to flooding several times  but never did fortunately. After a period of heavy rain it could turn from a gentle trickle into a raging torrent. my house was only about 1m if that above the level of the bank, so a much more extreme  situation than your prospective purchase.  Strangely enough We never once actually saw a rat !!!  Heard them a few times though. Put me off living close to a watercourse for life !!

Kyrae

I live with the garden backing on to trees and my advice would be only move there if you love the trees, and as silly as it sounds.... remember they grow taller so imagine what they will look like in 10+ years time and make sure you can live with that Don't be one of those people who buy a house next to trees and then complain when they grow tall and start asking about how to cut them down without getting in trouble, your neighbours might not be impressed

The trees behind us aren't maintained at all, the council say the land still belongs to the builders, but when we tried speaking to the builders they weren't interested. So don't expect the trees to be maintained, each neighbour just tends to trim them back themselves when the branches reach over the garden too much and we haven't had any problems with falling trees or branches etc. We do get rats occasionally too, just the odd one now and then and it's never been a problem for us.

There's good benefits to having trees nearby, it's lovely to hear the bird song, great for attracting birds to feed in the garden, you sometimes get squirrels and bats etc, and it's nice to watch the seasons changing etc. if this isn't your thing and you're worried, you're probably better off looking elsewhere