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

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Comments

  • Vectis
    Vectis Posts: 763 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    If people didn't buy the houses which are built on areas liable to flood, maybe the developers would stop building them there?

    The map you're looking at possibly isn't 100 per cent accurate, but it's giving you a big clue, isn't it?
  • Have you ever had a flood in your house? It's miserable. If there's a risk of flooding I would avoid.
  • Presumably the price reflects the location? TBH, £350 for building and contents insurance doesn't sound that high. We pay about £500 a year albeit for a 3 bed terraced house - we aren't in a flood risk area.
  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 48,705 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
    Vectis said:
    If people didn't buy the houses which are built on areas liable to flood, maybe the developers would stop building them there?

    The map you're looking at possibly isn't 100 per cent accurate, but it's giving you a big clue, isn't it?
    My house was built in 1935! I doubt there were flood risk maps then and to some extent the ground has changed, fields have been replaced by houses, increasing flow of water in certain areas. Still doesn’t make sense that the back of my garden is a higher risk of flooding than 4 doors down which is lower and linked by the culvert, so any ground water is going to flow that way.
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  • user1977
    user1977 Posts: 16,761 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Sixth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Blank11 said:
    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. 
    Are these all identical houses? (same age, size etc?) Other things will affect premiums (burglary etc) and sometimes insurers will apply odd "boundaries" because of where postcodes change.

    Also, is your existing premium comparable? Is that an up to date quote or just what you paid last time? Bear in mind premiums in general have shot up recently.
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 26,010 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Sixth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Presumably the price reflects the location? TBH, £350 for building and contents insurance doesn't sound that high. We pay about £500 a year albeit for a 3 bed terraced house - we aren't in a flood risk area.
    £500 seems on the high side. There are threads on other MSE forums about moneysaving/living on a budget etc. where quite commonly people are only paying not much over £100 for B&C. ( maybe has gone up in the last year or two) 
    Obviously it depends on a few things, but the main point seems to be they do not sign up for any extras, like accidental damage, legal expenses, garden stuff, personal belongings outside the home etc and agree a reasonably large excess. 
    Personally I am signed up for most of these things, but still only pay around £325 for a 4 bed house.
  • Have you visited the property? especially at the moment I would think it would be straight forward to see whether its really likely to flood or not.  We have drainage problems on our estate which is on a slope with a main road at the top and the run off goes down through our estate and into some woods at the back where there are some lakes.  A number of houses have gardens that slope down towards the houses and they have had issues with their patios flooding so a number have put in drainage along the front of the patio so that the water drains away there before it gets to the patio if that makes sense.

    Personally I would say visit and see for yourself.  At this time of year after all these storms if it hasn't flooded then I would have thought you would be ok.
  • Blank11
    Blank11 Posts: 117 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    user1977 said:
    Blank11 said:
    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. 
    Are these all identical houses? (same age, size etc?) Other things will affect premiums (burglary etc) and sometimes insurers will apply odd "boundaries" because of where postcodes change.

    Also, is your existing premium comparable? Is that an up to date quote or just what you paid last time? Bear in mind premiums in general have shot up recently.
    Yes same type of house and number of bedrooms. The one around the corner is a different street but looking at the flood risk map it seems to be affected the most out of the houses. I had a look at another area that I was interested in and one house has medium risk of surface flooding and insurance is higher than average. So, I am assuming the insurance companies are taking the SEPA flood risk map and areas into account. I did a quote as well for my current house and it is the average price of £150-170.
  • Blank11
    Blank11 Posts: 117 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    GixerKate said:
    Have you visited the property? especially at the moment I would think it would be straight forward to see whether its really likely to flood or not.  We have drainage problems on our estate which is on a slope with a main road at the top and the run off goes down through our estate and into some woods at the back where there are some lakes.  A number of houses have gardens that slope down towards the houses and they have had issues with their patios flooding so a number have put in drainage along the front of the patio so that the water drains away there before it gets to the patio if that makes sense.

    Personally I would say visit and see for yourself.  At this time of year after all these storms if it hasn't flooded then I would have thought you would be ok.
    No not yet as I was put off with the high surface and river flood risk (and the extra cost of home insurance for it now). This house is the max of the max budget for us so we are a little hesitant because we’d want something we were fully or almost fully happy with to pay that budget. 
  • Blank11
    Blank11 Posts: 117 Forumite
    10 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Reading online and majority of the votes seem to say to leave it. 
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