Considering Buying a Flat with a History of Sewer

jerryjc911

I'm in the process of purchasing a flat in North London and recently found out through the info pack that the property experienced sewer flooding in January 2024. The owner claimed £10k through insurance to repair the damage. During my viewing, everything seemed fine—no visible signs of issues—and I had a Level 1 Homebuyer Survey conducted. The only issue noted was an uneven kitchen floor, but the surveyor confirmed there are no structural concerns.

However, the surveyor did caution that this could be a red flag unless I can confirm the root cause of the flood has been addressed properly and that the building's insurance (through the management company) is still valid and insurable after this incident.

The estate agent downplayed it, saying it was a one-off event due to a blocked drainage issue the management company didn’t handle promptly, which led to the flooding. They’ve assured me everything has been repaired and replaced (including appliances and carpets). The agent hinted that a small price reduction could be negotiated due to insurance premiums, but they don’t think the seller would agree to a substantial reduction.

Of course I am speaking with my solicitor and asking her to fire an enquire regarding-1 seek further details from the seller about the full picture of the issue provide any repairs or replacement details and the root cause for me to evaluate to what it extent it might happen again. 2 verify if future insurance coverage will be more expensive or restricted due to the flood history.

My main questions are:

1. Could this happen again.....
2. What are the long-term insurance implications and resale risks exactly?
3. Even though the structural damage seems low, should I be worried about other potential hidden issues?
4. Shall I pull out?
5. The solicitor has 0 expeirence about similar flooding issue case- shall i escalate it or repalce her.
6. the asking price was 325k (1b in north zone 4 London), and I got an offer accepted at 316k, how big reduction I shall attempt to negociate?
7. give me some insight into the extent of the damage based on the 10K cliam they have made.

I’d appreciate any thoughts or similar experiences, especially on flooding risks, insurance and whether a price reduction should be pursued more aggressively.

Thanks for any help!

MikeJXE

I would want to see some paperwork from the company who did the repairs 

Not  just the carpets etc but the actual drainage 

user1977

You're not going to find a solicitor with specific experience of "buying flats with recent sewer flooding episodes", so it's hardly a reason to ditch your current one!

I would be wanting to exclude the possibility of this being a more general problem in the neighbourhood and it's the main sewers causing the flooding e.g. when they can't cope with heavy rainfall. But quite plausible it's a one-off caused by a more local blockage.

You can check insurance rates yourself (which would likely be affected if it's a more widespread problem). But if it appears to be a one-off and there are no identifiable defects in the property, I don't see grounds for chipping away at the price.

jerryjc911

user1977 said:

You're not going to find a solicitor with specific experience of "buying flats with recent sewer flooding episodes", so it's hardly a reason to ditch your current one!

I would be wanting to exclude the possibility of this being a more general problem in the neighbourhood and it's the main sewers causing the flooding e.g. when they can't cope with heavy rainfall. But quite plausible it's a one-off caused by a more local blockage.

You can check insurance rates yourself (which would likely be affected if it's a more widespread problem). But if it appears to be a one-off and there are no identifiable defects in the property, I don't see grounds for chipping away at the price.

Thanks a lot, couple of questions: my gut feeling is it might not being a general problem , but I am worrying in case it happens again, the resale might be too difficult, what you might suggest me to do , to understand the root of the issue of flooding? 2 what is the best way to understand insurance implication? (  it is through management company service charge which cover the building insurance, via solicitor or myself) if I can do , how? 3 how can i see some paperwork from the company who did the repairs Not just those replacements like carpets etc but the actual drainage fixes, how?

jerryjc911

MikeJXE said:

I would want to see some paperwork from the company who did the repairs 

Not  just the carpets etc but the actual drainage 

shall i ask solicitor fire a query  or i can do

user1977

If it's a general problem in the neighbourhood then other locals will know about it, it would be in the local news, people lobbying the water company etc.

You check insurance rates by putting in dummy quotes in the comparison sites with that postcode. That should at least tell you if the insurers think there's a problem with the area. The building's insurance will undoubtedly go up a bit if there have been claims, probably not much anybody can do to speculate about next year's premium.

mark_cycling00

From my experience, if the apartment is a slightly odd conversion like an old basement then it might indicate that it wasn't connected to the mains sewer very well 

If this is block of apartments then yeah this type of thing happens quite often. One person flushes a load of nappies down the loo, they get stuck at another floor and an unfortunate person gets sewage coming up through their plug holes etc. 

It doesn't affect every apartment. Life's not fair sadly.

But lesson learned and the residents are more careful afterwards 

DullGreyGuy

First of all you need more details of what actually happened, did the insurer consider it a flood or escape of water? Flood will have come from outside the building where as EoW would be inside... potentially it could also be considered Accidental Damage depending on exactly what has happened. 

Buildings insurance will be arranged by the freeholder, check if the policy has been renewed since the flood and if so what the movement in premiums were and what the excess for this category of claim now is. If it hasn't been renewed yet then there isn't too much you can do as getting Block Insurance quotes isn't as simple as going on confused.com

Contents insurance will also be impacted if its Flood, probably not if its EoW or AD. You can get quotes for yourself to see the impact on that. 

If it was just a unspecified blockage, ie likely people flushing the wrong things and fats, then there is reasonable prospects of repeats unless they undertook major works (highly unlikely the insurance would have paid for that). If it was because of tree roots etc then you need confirmation what repairs were actually done to the sewer to prevent repeat. 


EoW can be particularly painful, there was a post on here a while back of someone who bought a flat with a bit of a history of EoW. They thought it wasnt too bad because the premiums were high but not silly however when it repeated itself they discovered the premiums weren't too high because the excess for EoW had increased to £10,000 and so had to pay the £8,000 repairs themselves. 

jerryjc911

DullGreyGuy said:

First of all you need more details of what actually happened, did the insurer consider it a flood or escape of water? Flood will have come from outside the building where as EoW would be inside... potentially it could also be considered Accidental Damage depending on exactly what has happened. 

Buildings insurance will be arranged by the freeholder, check if the policy has been renewed since the flood and if so what the movement in premiums were and what the excess for this category of claim now is. If it hasn't been renewed yet then there isn't too much you can do as getting Block Insurance quotes isn't as simple as going on confused.com

Contents insurance will also be impacted if its Flood, probably not if its EoW or AD. You can get quotes for yourself to see the impact on that. 

If it was just a unspecified blockage, ie likely people flushing the wrong things and fats, then there is reasonable prospects of repeats unless they undertook major works (highly unlikely the insurance would have paid for that). If it was because of tree roots etc then you need confirmation what repairs were actually done to the sewer to prevent repeat. 


EoW can be particularly painful, there was a post on here a while back of someone who bought a flat with a bit of a history of EoW. They thought it wasnt too bad because the premiums were high but not silly however when it repeated itself they discovered the premiums weren't too high because the excess for EoW had increased to £10,000 and so had to pay the £8,000 repairs themselves. 

it it was flooded due to a kitchen sink backup. The issue was caused by a central drain blockage, and the tenant wasn’t home for a couple of days, made the situation worse. The entire flat ended up being affected. The vendor was reimbursed £13k by the management company, which covered replacing the cabinets and sink, priming the floor, deep-cleaning the dishwasher, replacing damaged flooring, installing new carpet and underlay, and repainting the bedroom, hallway, and kitchen. So, cosmetically, everything looks fine, and my surveyor, who did an L1 homebuyer’s report, said the flat’s condition was good.The management company says they’ll service the drains more regularly moving forward, but I’ve asked for email confirmation to better understand what exactly they’re committing to. Since it’s a ground-floor flat, I’m worried that if residents upstairs put things down the drain they shouldn’t, I could be at risk again. On the other hand, if they’ve learned their lesson and I’m home more often, I could catch any issues early enough to prevent another flood.