Found out my house is high flood risk

user1977

Oomz said:

Is there anything I can do regarding the solicitors? Can I put in a complaint to the Ombudsman for negligence? Is it negligence?

Being risk averse I might not have bought the house knowing this information.

It isn't negligence for a solicitor to fail to suggest that you buy every search under the sun (especially if you were intending to interpret the results in a fairly peculiar way). Even if it were, what remedy would you be seeking? Your house is still worth the same, given that it does not appear to be under any sort of material flood risk.

And even if you had a valid cause for complaint, no you can't complain directly to the Ombudsman, you'd need to go through the firm's own complaints procedure first (which they should have explained to you at the outset).

As you say, you're having an overreaction. I suggest you find other ways of dealing with it, rather than lashing out at your solicitor.

RHemmings

I put the addresses of the last three houses I've lived in. My current house is low, but not very low, for surface water. I would think such very unlikely. A previous house was medium for surface water. I'm not sure where that water would come from, but unlike both the previous and current house I live in, it's not on a steep hill. The house two before my current one is very low for surface water. But, I can't for the life of me think why it would be less at risk than my current one. The situations look near identical. 

MysteryMe

"I have never seen a hint of flooding anywhere, nor have the neighbours who are all retired and lived in the culdesac for 25+ years. The pensioner i bought the house from lived there for 38 years and said there has never been flooding on the solicitors form. There has been no historical flood alerts or flood history in the area."

These are your own words, this is the real word that you are living in. Not some internet search tool. 

There was a thread a couple of years back again with a similar query and out of curiosity I checked and apparently I am also in a high risk area. I have lived in my house for close to 30 years, in one of the driest parts of the country and there has not been even a hint of flooding anywhere that I am aware of. No large bodies of water forming on roads, no drives flooded. 

After rolling my eyes, I carried on with my life.

Oomz

user1977 said:

Oomz said:

Is there anything I can do regarding the solicitors? Can I put in a complaint to the Ombudsman for negligence? Is it negligence?

Being risk averse I might not have bought the house knowing this information.

It isn't negligence for a solicitor to fail to suggest that you buy every search under the sun (especially if you were intending to interpret the results in a fairly peculiar way). Even if it were, what remedy would you be seeking? Your house is still worth the same, given that it does not appear to be under any sort of material flood risk.

And even if you had a valid cause for complaint, no you can't complain directly to the Ombudsman, you'd need to go through the firm's own complaints procedure first (which they should have explained to you at the outset).

As you say, you're having an overreaction. I suggest you find other ways of dealing with it, rather than lashing out at your solicitor.

After reading more into the environmental search, it appears it's a very common and standard search that is carried out to check a number of things (subsidence, radon, contamination) including flood risk. Everyone I have spoke to who has purchased a property has said their solicitors did an environmental search but for some reason mine didn't. Luckily no other issues show up on the environmental search.

Even if my house is worth the same, my decision of purchasing the property at the time would likely have been different.

I don't know what the remedy is either but it has been unpleasant for me to find out this way.

user1977

Oomz said:

user1977 said:

Oomz said:

Is there anything I can do regarding the solicitors? Can I put in a complaint to the Ombudsman for negligence? Is it negligence?

Being risk averse I might not have bought the house knowing this information.

It isn't negligence for a solicitor to fail to suggest that you buy every search under the sun (especially if you were intending to interpret the results in a fairly peculiar way). Even if it were, what remedy would you be seeking? Your house is still worth the same, given that it does not appear to be under any sort of material flood risk.

And even if you had a valid cause for complaint, no you can't complain directly to the Ombudsman, you'd need to go through the firm's own complaints procedure first (which they should have explained to you at the outset).

As you say, you're having an overreaction. I suggest you find other ways of dealing with it, rather than lashing out at your solicitor.

After reading more into the environmental search, it appears it's a very common and standard search that is carried out to check a number of things (subsidence, radon, contamination) including flood risk.

Yes, and look at the number of threads we've had here from people baffled/worried about the search results. Things like subsidence and radon risk are going to be much the same for any property in a given neighbourhood, they're not particularly useful data (assuming all your options are in the same area). What's the point of getting the searches if you don't understand how they're created and what the results actually mean? I doubt your solicitors would do more than shrug, even if they had recommended the searches. So then what would you have done? Worry about the little bit of blue on your driveway and ignore all the other evidence that there isn't a flood problem?

Hoenir

Some years ago lived in a village north of Newbury in the Berkshire Downs. As with many villages over the years there many infill houses built. During October we had 6 weeks of continuous rain. One paddock that had never been built on totally flooded and became a lake. On a visit to the local pub. Was chatting to one of the long time residents. Who informed that the paddock was actually called the Great Pond and had last flooded back in 1953. Water has to run somewhere as doesn't just soak away as many believe. Probably won't flood again for another 50 odd years. 

Dustyevsky

Your own way of looking at the world is possibly why your title to the thread is wrong. Your house isn't at a high risk of surface water flooding, it's your drive, or part of it, that might be at risk in the event of severe wet weather. Join the club; there must be millions in this position.

A practical thing you can do, if you're a practical person, is to use a laser level to work out how high water would have to be to enter the house. That's the only danger worth worrying about. Most floor levels are well above the height at the base of the walls, and given what you've told us, it seems unlikely the house itself would be at risk. Seeing just how unlikely, bearing in mind the topography, might be a way of reducing the stress you feel.

Albermarle

Is there anything I can do regarding the solicitors? Can I put in a complaint to the Ombudsman for negligence? Is it negligence?Being risk averse I might not have bought the house knowing this information.

The process of complaining or maybe even suing the solicitor, will be pretty stressful, expensive, and will probably drag on for ages.
So if you are risk averse, then presumably you want to avoid bringing all this added stress to yourself?

Instead go for a walk, watch TV or whatever, and relax. 

Eldi_Dos

silvercar said:

Same here. Curiously, we are the high point on the road, yet we are high risk of surface flooding and others are medium or low. Our back garden slopes downwards towards a culvert at the bottom of the garden that has only ever become a quarter full at most.

Is the culvert entrance protected by a screen to prevent debris entering it and has it ever been cleaned out to keep it freeflowing?
Simple measures like that can save a lot of grief.

Ksw3

Could you see if you could make some changes to the front of your property whilst doing the extension which would give you some reassurance?