To buy a house on a flood plain?

[Arkbuilder]

We have fallen in love with a house, offer accepted etc. Turns out it's the highest level of flood risk (3). There is a small brook that runs along one boundary. The owners had said it has flooded but never got to the house. We intended to build something bigger on the land. Is this a show stopper? Am I being a fool to proceed?

If you wanted to build something bigger, it's clearly not your dream house. Let it go and save yourselves years of saying, "Well, YOU were the one who INSISTED we buy the bloody thing!"

Unless your 'something bigger' is a 20ft dyke all the way around.

Wouldn’t touch it. Climate change is throwing up “once in an hundred year” events pretty much every year and it’s in the highest risk zone for a reason.
Unless you can afford to live without insurance, look for another house. May be academic anyway, lots of mortgage providers may not lend on it.

I’d rather buy the house from Poltergeist that’s built on an Indian burial ground (just beware of clown toys, televisions and swimming pools).

Basically, no. No house is worth that.

We built a breeze block wall inside our boundary approx 4 ft high. Also has a flood gate in wall. We have a burn, Scottish term for brook, at the side of house. Initially had problems with insurance, then insured with rias who were much more reasonable. Burn is tidal so before the wall went up we would get water into the garden then it would disappear.

Christ no. As others have said, climate change means the issues will only get worse in the future - you may never be able to sell it. Have you looked into whether planning permission would actually be granted?

No. Absolutely crazy to even still be considering it.

Are you a climate change denier? Crack on with it.
Do you understand what we are facing? Then don't even consider it.

No way... we went through this process recently. We made an offer on a house on a flood plain and the elderly couple selling it told us they’d never flooded. Turned out they’d only lived there five years and the year before they moved in it had flooded and that’s why the houses next to it had been rebuilt. Also insurance was a nightmare so we pulled out.

Why are you not allowed to alert people to the fact your home is liable to flooding? Would it not show up in the searches anyway?

Ide stay clear. My cousin's house occasionally floods (due to insufficient drainage) I still remember as a child splashing in my wellys in the lounge while my cousin just cried. That image has always stayed with me and that one wasnt even a big one.

No! It wouldn't even cross my mind tbh.

I bought a house that had flooded 10 years previously. It was declared as a 1 in 100 years risk. A lot had been done in the area with flood defences. The reason for the previous flood wasn’t simply “too much rain” - it was also the series of decisions on what gates to open to manage the flooding. This area was sacrificed for another. So we decided it wasn’t as simple as rain = flood. We checked we could get insurance. We had a good talk about how we’d feel about being flooded... one neighbour was philosophical and enjoyed the new floor and kitchen, the other sold up as they just couldn’t settle after moving back in. We decided we would take the risk - and offered accordingly.

It was an unusual house for the area. There are a load of new builds going up nearby now - I wouldn’t have made the same decision for something identical to another site.

Don't even go there. Guess you've never had to start over every couple or three years or had to be rescued from your own home with water up to your neck...

Are you planning on demolishing and building again or extending the existing?
If it's the former then you should be willing to take specialist advice on designing for the floodplain conditions, if it's the latter then it's going to be more tricky.
How much do you love it and what are you willing to do to 'flood proof' your home?
How will you insure it? How is it currently insured? what are the costs?
Even if it's not flooded before I would assume that it would flood in the future. So either you accept it will flood OR you actively try to mitigate that flood risk.
It certainly complicates the purchase so I would think about it very carefully and consider how much hassle you are willing to deal with

We tried to buy a house with a river at the bottom of the garden and the owners told us it had only ever got into the house once in the previous 30 years. They had made a claim for new carpets on their Home Insurance. Because of this we couldn't get a mortgage on the house. (If they hadn't made the insurance claim we would have been ok).

They then had to tell the EA and because it then became a "cash only purchase" they had to nearly half the selling price. Felt so sorry for them.

We tried to buy a house with a river at the bottom of the garden

Were there .... visible otters ?

@DGRossetti Could you elaborate a bit more? Why can't a house be built up? This is an isolated house with no immediate neighbours.

Living in the Lake district, we have had a fair few epic floods these past few years.
My friends house was flooded, she can get insurance on it but the excess is £30,000 contents and £30,000 buildings so basically hardly worth it if you are paying out the first £60,000 of any damage.

No way. And if you're still thinking of proceeding, look at all the pp's who have said no and imagine your selling pool has shrunk by 90%.

Could you elaborate a bit more? Why can't a house be built up? This is an isolated house with no immediate neighbours.

I didn't say it "couldn't". But to get planning permission will be ... interesting. Because what you are doing is then signalling that every other house around (even if not neighbouring) is somehow vulnerable to flooding.

That's before you consider that stilted buildings aren't really a UK "thing". You might have a few riverside properties, but not in the middle of nowhere.

Shame really, as it would solve one problem of living on a flood plain.

No, I can't imagine why you would.
Also it will be a nightmare to sell in future!

No.
Flood risks are likely to increase rather than decrease in the future.
Having your home flood is horrendous.

As a victim of Storm Desmond, no no and thrice bloody no.

Is it in Somerset? If yes then perhaps as there Has been loads of money spent on flood prevention.

However check how much it costs to insure it!

However check how much it costs to insure it!

It would be a lot more helpful to know how much it will cost to insure it (if you can) in 10 years time.

Hell no. Also, your stated reasons don't really make sense - you've "fallen in love with a house" but "We intended to build something bigger on the land". So... build the something bigger elsewhere instead?