Everybody says it won't flood but...

LE_Bore

Hi MSE folk,

We are thinking of buying a modest house in a Devon town. The house is in a road which is quite elevated. There's a river in the town and some streams but the house is a long way away from them. However... we looked on the flood maps for planning on gov.uk https://check-long-term-flood-risk.service.gov.uk/ and it says the property is Medium Risk for surface water flooding. In fact it makes it look like a stream would pass through or around the house in the event of a surface water 'event'. Yet the site also says it is "likely to be reliable for a local area but not for identifying individual properties at risk" even though it asks you to identify which house including the door number before it delivers results.

I have spoken to people who live very near to the house and they say there have been no floods. I have talked to the area's councillor who says the same though they said water does run down from the surrounding countryside into town though not specifically where our prospective house would be. When I spoke to our insurers, they said it was rated 6 out of 10 in terns of flood risk and they would be happy to cover it -- our current house is rated 2. Medium risk, according to the govt website, means there is up to a 3 in 100 risk of a flood in any given year. That equates to once every 30 years I think. 

My questions are, how seriously should we take this government flood map? How is it drawn up? Anyone know how accurate it really is? We are quite nervous of flooding because we narrowly avoided it at a previous home. Friends dismiss any risk as just another risk -- after all, a badly-driven bus could fall out of the sky and crush us -- but I know people whose life has been ruined by flooding and we are not really young enough to start again if the house gets wrecked. But the house is a nice place and would suit us very well. And it is not on a flying bus route.

Any opinions gratefully received. Thank you for reading. 

youth_leader

Wishing you the best of luck with your research. I do think with the changes we've seen in the climate around the world this year I would be extremely cautious.  Could you join the Facebook community page?  Often locals make comments that don't make it into the newspapers.  

I had hoped to move to Exmouth, but the only houses I could afford were in the 'high' flood risk areas. 

t1redmonkey

I’ve only lived in Wales and we use different flood maps.  I’ve always lived in “Low” risk areas, and none have ever flooded in my lifetime (35+ years).  

However, my last house did almost get flooded 2 years ago, even though it was in a low risk area.  It was probably about 1 days rain away from a nearby river breaking its banks and flooding.  Thankfully the rain stopped just in time.  A nearby area that was classed as “High” risk did get flooded quite badly (which was the first time it had flooded for about 40 years).

I’m currently house hunting and specifically looking for houses on elevated ground though, as there is talk of climate change making flooding more likely in the years to come so I’m just trying to avoid that risk if possible.

theoretica

I found it very interesting to look at the flood risk maps for a number of places I had known well over the years and compare them with where I remembered water over the roads, soggy gardens, or good drainage.  This gave me a sense of their accuracy.

Acorn22

I was buying a house last year that i knew from the flood map was in a medium risk area for surface water flooding (rural property so surface water from fields near by) and a low risk for river flooding. It had not flooded for approx 20years, so i was going ahead with the purchase, but unfortunately the survey i had bought up some major structural issues (possibly caused by previous flooding) so i didnt proceed, however my surveyor did say to me, as another commentator has said above, that would you really want to buy a house in a flood area with the weather and climate change as it is, and with flooding areas only likely to get worse. 

I found out only recently that that property i was buying did end up getting partially flooded end of last year, so i had a very lucky escape. I now will not consider any property with any type of flooding risk. I couldnt live with the stress everytime we had rain thinking it might get flooded. 

Good luck with your decision making though, as I know it's difficult when you find a property you love to walk away from it. 

LE_Bore

Thank you for all the replies so far. Plenty of things to consider there and it's good to hear from those who have been in a similar position. Indeed, the climate change issue is very much on my mind regarding the risks. 

One of the things I have not mentioned is about half the streets in the town we are thinking of moving to have some surface water flooding risk, low medium and high. However, when I looked at the town we currently live in, it's even worse, yet I can't remember more than one flood in 20 years and that was in one little spot. And the surface water flooding issue seems shockingly localised: my friend's house, in the next town to ours, is just across the road from a house which has been inundated with surface water several times. But the water has never once threatened my friend's house despite being about 10 metres away: it runs away down the road between them. 

youth_leader

Do try the local FB pages for reassurance immac, have a good look through the photos.  It does rain a lot in Devon. I hope it all works out for you.

Initially I was hoping to move to Cornwall  to volunteer at the Eden project, and researched St Blazey/Par.  When I joined the FB pages I found out they actually have regular local alerts for heavy rain/surface water flooding - it is called the Par and St Blazey Community Flood group. 

LongoBongo

The maps aren’t particularly accurate on a plot by plot basis. Is the slab level of the house above the level of the road? If it is then you’re probably alright.

I do Flood Risk Assessments for a living, if you PM me the postcode I can have a quick look at the map and google Streetview.

Ksw3

I think it depends on the house as well. I used to live on a hill and all the rainwater would flow down hill and collect on the front path. Fortunately the door was two or three steps higher than the path. It only got close to the bottom of the door once or twice but never flooded. It had very tiny drains so I don't know if you could improve drainage or create a diversion. 

silvercar

Just looked on the link and my home is in a high risk area for surface flooding. We have a culvert at the bottom of the garden that a decade  ago would be a stream in Winter, in recent years it’s been dry. 

TheJP

My house is high risk of surface flooding, i have no water around me. Its mainly because i live at the end of a cul-de-sac and there isn't any surface drains outside my driveway. Its terminology and over egging risk in reports. Honestly don't think you have anything to worry about.