To buy a house which has flooded in the past?

[mostlyrain]

We viewed a house yesterday in a village we would love to live in. It's a desirable area and stock is low. This is the 2nd house to come up in 6 months within our budget. Anyhow this house is great. Needs some work as it's had tenants in but the only reason we can afford it is because it has flooded in the past. Once in 1968 and once in 2012. Seemingly a flood plan has been put in place by the LA and EA since. It's right next to a ford. Are we mad to even consider it?

Walk away. We had a house which had "never flooded" according to the previous owner, nor could we find any evidence however we went to the local tool hire place when we were doing some work and got "I know where you are, we delivered some dehumidifiers when they were flooded"!

Every time it rained heavily we stressed about it, never went on holiday without having someone house sit, and on one hugely stressful day had to have two water pumps going for 24 hours to keep the water out of the house. We did a load of landscaping - new drains, bunds and replaced Tarmac with gravel and the water never came in. We sold a while ago, disclosed all of this to our buyers, including that we believed it had flooded previously but couldn't prove it and they were OK with it. Last time we saw them a few years ago they'd been fine but did admit they worried when the rain was excessive. Personally, having been in a flood risk property (albeit quite a low risk) I wouldn't again.

It isn't just weather. Stupid policies allowing building on flood plains can and have change 'never flooded' into swimming pool.

I am currently fighting one such...

I wouldn't personally as I just wouldn't want to risk. No way I'd buy it.

If you do go ahead and buy, make sure you can get insurance

Something else to think about. We (the EA) can barely meet the economic justification for protecting against the size, scale and extent of floods that have previously occurred. We've had several "worst floods on record" floods in the last few years. We can not justify (ie won't get funding for) protecting against bigger floods that haven't happened yet. Flood defence rarely fail, but are often overtopped.

We bought a house 3 years ago which flooded in 1997 and again in 2002. There's a stream which runs about 10 feet from our house. The council has built a 5 foot double wall along our boundary and there's been a flood alleviation scheme built further upstream which holds water and releases it slowly down stream. We've had bad rain many times and once it was really bad and the stream rose quite high but it was still a foot below the wall. I know I can't say it'll never flood but it's a risk we are prepared to take. Our insurance is £55 per month for a 4 bed, 4 public rooms and 3 bathroom detached house so not too bad. Our excess for flooding is £2000 though.

There's no way I would even view a house in a floodrisk area, let alone buy one. When we were househunting it was one of the things I checked before we even rang agents to request viewings.

Easy to buy, hard to sell, and stressful and expensive to live in.

Don't get me started on the new build estates built on floodplains!

No way.

My friend has to pay £4000 a year insurance due to a previous flooding

Walk away

Please, please don't do it. Our house flooded a few years ago and it was incredibly stressful

We lost belongings and, even after the renovation work had been completed, it never felt like home again. Our insurance went up 50% and we had a £10,000 excess for flooding.

I ended up hating that house and we were very lucky to sell it.

Another thing to bear in mind is that flood water has to go somewhere - flood defences in one place can push flood water into other areas.

I tend to buy houses on hills for a reason (like BikeRunSki, I'm a geotechnical engineer).

I would only consider it if I was willing to spend a lot of money making sure the house was flood resistant so as PPs have said, swimming pool tiles and drains on lower floor, makes sure foundations can take it, wiring all located to height etc. Ie only consider it if you are ready to be flooded.

Good list of things you can do here:

www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+3+resources/Are+you+flood+ready/Flood+proof+homes.htm

Well the advice is pretty unanimous it's hard to ignore you all! My husband is keen to have another look so we're going back tomorrow but I think I've checked out now as we've got 2 small children and the thought of dealing with a flood sounds horrific!

Perhaps call an insurance company and see how much insurance would be.

Flood water does have to go somewhere, but where we can we try and get it to places that don't matter so much. Off line flood storage. Either upstream of settlements, or push the water through towns by means of defences, into downstream flood storage.

Will you love the village when you're flooded out and you're forced to move into a family members home for 18 months? Or a friends house? That's what could end up happening.

BikeRunSki I have pm you the info. Thanks for your help!

Having been in the area flooded by boxing day floods last year, I wouldn't, its not just river water which get into houses, plus there is the risk of life, waded through floods with undercurrents, loss of electricity. The right house will come up at some time

I wouldn't.

Listening to that rain is very stressful. Monitoring the environment agency website to see how high the water levels are is not a fun way to spend an evening.

Would also say, if the village is small houses won't come up very often and may actually sell before going on the market. It's worth dropping leaflets through doors. I have friends who bought houses like this and we looked at two places off the back of leaflet drops.

I think it would be a mistake. Our house has never, ever flooded and yet, after the winter of 2012, (you know, when Somerset turned into an inland sea and frankly if you didnt flood then, you aint going to flood) our insurance co tried to put up our insurance by x4!! Their rationale was that we have water near us (yes, the village duck pond is about 50 yards away!). If you have actually flooded in recent memory, I would imagine it would be v tough to get insurance.

No don't. My town is still recovering from floods six months ago. Some people have been flooded three times in four years. The first was meant to be a once in a century anomaly.

Those worst affected are still in rented accommodation and will be for another six months or more. Many don't want to go back even then - but are justifiably worried that the property will neither sell nor rent.

Flooding is catastrophic. It's hard to describe unless you've witnessed it. As destructive as fire, really. The water is contaminated and flows with massively destructive force. It's nothing like damage from a leaky roof or faulty appliance. Damage takes months, years to repair, and anything perishable is destroyed.

Walk away. There's a reason it's so cheap, I'm afraid.

Seriously, don't do it.

Regardless of insurance and mortgage issues, the stress and hassle of clearing up after flooding is a nightmare. Unless measures are in place to stop it happening again, walk away.

We've been flooded twice - freak "once in 500 year event", then it happened again about 8 years later. We've spent a fortune on flood protection and we were very lucky both times with our insurance. We're overseas so different weather and construction issues to the UK though.