High risk river and surface flooding according to SEPA map - how accurate is this?

Blank11

Looking at the SEPA map the coloured flood parts are around the house. How accurate is the map?

How do you know if you should pull out or not? I’ve tried searching online and I know some parts of the area itself has flooded in the past (from Google images) but street itself I haven’t seen anything.

user1977

As SEPA say on their website, the maps are only really meant to give a rough idea of the flood risk within a 50 metre radius, so don't that provide that much certainty of whether a specific property is at risk or not. But probably as good as you're going to get without paying for a much more specific assessment.

Have you checked for insurance quotes? I would have thought that to be a good indicator of whether there have been any flood claims in recent times.

sammyjammy

they can be very inaccurate, I would be considered at v high risk of flooding due to a river around 30m from my house, it flooded twice in the last couple of weeks, what it fails to take into account is that I am approx 15ms higher than said river and if it were to flood my house then half the country would have drowned in flood water!

ProDave

The one where I live is very accurate.  It rightly predicts that the field to the south of us floods, and the flood risk extends to part of my garden.  Just over a week ago the field and that little bit of my garden did flood, but the house was at no risk as the ground the house is on is higher and the water from the flooded field has somewhere to run to away from the house.

What is the general terain?  If it is generally flat then that would worry me more, as if it does flood, there is nowhere for it to drain to.

Unless this is a particularly special house, I would possibly be looking for a different one that is not close to a flood risk.

Blank11

user1977 said:

As SEPA say on their website, the maps are only really meant to give a rough idea of the flood risk within a 50 metre radius, so don't that provide that much certainty of whether a specific property is at risk or not. But probably as good as you're going to get without paying for a much more specific assessment.

Have you checked for insurance quotes? I would have thought that to be a good indicator of whether there have been any flood claims in recent times.

Thanks that’s a good suggestion on insurance quotes. Is there a site online I can possibly check for flood claims?

Blank11

ProDave said:

The one where I live is very accurate.  It rightly predicts that the field to the south of us floods, and the flood risk extends to part of my garden.  Just over a week ago the field and that little bit of my garden did flood, but the house was at no risk as the ground the house is on is higher and the water from the flooded field has somewhere to run to away from the house.

What is the general terain?  If it is generally flat then that would worry me more, as if it does flood, there is nowhere for it to drain to.

Unless this is a particularly special house, I would possibly be looking for a different one that is not close to a flood risk.

It is flat but my concern is the garden is on a higher slope so there is the possibility of the water funnelling down to the house. Are there any common cheap measures to prevent floods like that? I have a few areas I am interested in and this is one of the houses that has popped up in such a long time so I am torn. 

Blank11

I just checked and insurance is £350 which is double where I currently live. Strangely enough the house opposite to the one I am interested in the quote is £430. 

user1977

Blank11 said:

user1977 said:

As SEPA say on their website, the maps are only really meant to give a rough idea of the flood risk within a 50 metre radius, so don't that provide that much certainty of whether a specific property is at risk or not. But probably as good as you're going to get without paying for a much more specific assessment.

Have you checked for insurance quotes? I would have thought that to be a good indicator of whether there have been any flood claims in recent times.

Thanks that’s a good suggestion on insurance quotes. Is there a site online I can possibly check for flood claims?

Not specifically, the insurers have their own records and will take it into account when quoting. If they're not quoting extortionate prices then I doubt they consider it high risk for flooding.

silvercar

My house is supposedly at risk of surface flooding. It’s never flooded.

Oddly it’s me and a few of my neighbours only, we are at the top of our road, so would have thought others further down the hill were more at risk. We have a culvert running along the back of all our gardens. When we first moved 15 years ago, winter would see water running through the culvert, for the last few years it has been dry. The worst that has happened is the garden gets a bit water logged in heavy rain, explained by the clay soil.

Blank11

user1977 said:

Blank11 said:

user1977 said:

As SEPA say on their website, the maps are only really meant to give a rough idea of the flood risk within a 50 metre radius, so don't that provide that much certainty of whether a specific property is at risk or not. But probably as good as you're going to get without paying for a much more specific assessment.

Have you checked for insurance quotes? I would have thought that to be a good indicator of whether there have been any flood claims in recent times.

Thanks that’s a good suggestion on insurance quotes. Is there a site online I can possibly check for flood claims?

Not specifically, the insurers have their own records and will take it into account when quoting. If they're not quoting extortionate prices then I doubt they consider it high risk for flooding.

I did some quotes and it comes up double the price of where I live. Some houses that are shown to be in the coloured flood zone beside the house I am interested in is an extra £100-200 on top. Now I am unsure whether it is a result of high risk flooding or/and insurance claims. 

Blank11

silvercar said:

My house is supposedly at risk of surface flooding. It’s never flooded.

Oddly it’s me and a few of my neighbours only, we are at the top of our road, so would have thought others further down the hill were more at risk. We have a culvert running along the back of all our gardens. When we first moved 15 years ago, winter would see water running through the culvert, for the last few years it has been dry. The worst that has happened is the garden gets a bit water logged in heavy rain, explained by the clay soil.

I did see in the flood map if it is surface flood then part of the back garden would be flooded. It doesn’t help that the garden is higher sloped so it would mean water running down to the house. My other concern is recently with climate change and how the weather has been so much more unpredictable with the heavy rain and causing floods elsewhere on roads and homes.