Found out devastating news about house we are about to buy, Should we pull out?

[Welikethemoon]

We were all set to move, got everything in place, went for second viewing to show our daughters thier new house for the first time. Owner was there so I asked her about the flood risk which has come up as surprisingly high on the survey. She looked shocked and said she thought we knew it had been flooded twice in last 10 years but flash flood rain water run off and also before she moved in. She had instructed estate agent to tell everyone who viewed. We have had the offer accepted since April, estate agents just told me, sorry they "forgot" to tell us. Now don't know what to do. Thus was supposed to be our "forever" home, that had everything we needed. I have a very specific list of things I wanted and this ticks all the boxes, there us nothing else currently on the market that comes close. It's a significantly bigger mortgage than current place. I don't want to move again after this. Seller has said she has put in extra drainage since the last flood, but it hasn't been tested in similar conditions since so no guarantee it would work. Plus with climate change its more likely to happen.
Husband still wants to move, I'm not so sure. What would you do? AIBU to pull out now, risk losing our buyers and wait for a better house to come on the market?

As I said upthread, the searches should have been done back in April/May by the solicitor first thing after the offer was accepted. That should have revealed the flood risk then, and the solicitor should have warned them. The OP could have then organised a survey asap and gone online to look at the flood map of the area.

That’s why I don’t understand the timeframe of this at all.

Agree - especially your point about buyers reading the paperwork. It may be boring and taxing but the OP has posted that they don’t have a lot of experience in this area so worth caution. I’ve never understood why people are reluctant to ask questions of their solicitor -after all they work for you and you’re paying them handsomely for their expertise.

Me neither.

If you mean the TA6 property information form, you’re correct. Once you make the offer and it’s accepted, conveyancing commences via your solicitor. Technically it has to be returned before exchanged but in reality if you don’t return it within a few days your solicitor will nag you for it because any anomalies will hold up the exchange.

Should have been among the first paperwork you received after the survey report. Crucial for deciding whether to proceed.

We put in an offer in mid April, our house wasn't on the market yet, as I refused to move unless we found (what I thought) was the right house. House went on the market a week later and took a few weeks to sell so we are now in the middle of May. We instructed solicitors a week later. There have been various holdups, not of our making, from both our buyers and our vendors (divorce situation so not straight forward) and our solicitors which meant we didn't move forward straight away. Surveys were done about a week ago, we didn't get the survey until late last week. I spotted the flood risk and was a bit confused as the house is on a hill with no river near, so since we had a viewing booked fir a few days later I decided to bring it up with the vendor in person. Estate agent has since admitted he knew and "thought he told us" (lying scumbag). We havnt had the searches returned yet, thet are due this week we definitely have not had the TA6 firm yet, I checked.

Pull out it would be one of the first things I did for due diligence. Love Faversham and wanted to move there - did my work and sadly went off the list. Things are only going to get worse sadly.

So bloody stressful. We moved three years ago and it was a nightmare - I hope everything works out for you.

I'd be very very careful with any price comparison site... You really should speak to a specialist insurer.

I knew people who lived in Tewkesbury post flood...

They COULD get insurance, and only 50%more or so...

Butnonly with an EXCESS of £25 000 - £30k.... 😱....

So insurance would only kick in AFTER you'd stumped up the first £25-30k....

You've lived 200 yards away for 13 years but didn't know the house had flooded twice in the last ten years? I'm just trying to get my head around where this house is compared to your current one - is it down the hill on a different road that you don't go down or something?

Regardless, I wouldn't buy it! Sounds like a nightmare, unfortunately.

If your husband is still interested in moving there, get him to phone the insurance company and disclose the flooding history. Ask for what the premium would be and also what the excess would be.

With kids it would be a no from me. Getting a knock on the door at night with kids asleep isn't good, neither is finding somewhere to stay with kids in tow who are half asleep, wearing PJs, missing a favourite toy/blanket etc.

If it was just me and DH, then we might have a slightly different attitude to the risk.

I would pull out & play holy hell with the Estate Agent

@Rosscameasdoody
I don’t understand that. Checking on the sign off on a conversion is the solicitors’ job not the estate agents. You shouldn’t have had to take even a small hit on the price, because in the event of the sign off not being obtained, the solicitor would have covered it with an insurance policy. We had exactly the same with a garage conversion on the property we sold and it was highlighted in the conveyancing.

I assume you're talking about an indemnity policy. You can't get indemnity insurance for something you know is a problem, only for things that may or may not be a problem. We knew the conversion hadn't been signed off and wasn't up to code. It came up when we were buying the property and our offer reflected the issue. It raised the cost of our annual property insurance slightly but nothing else. By the time we came to sell it was something that also seemed to be on the radar of some mortgage companies and at least a few insurance companies just wouldn't insure at all. We needed a quick sale so we told the estate agent and asked him to make sure buyers knew as we wanted any offers to reflect the issue and not to be accepting an offer from someone who would then have to walk away when they found out about it. This seems to be what OP's sellers have done. I did not say it was the estate agents job to check on sign off.

Op flood damage is one of the worst. It's destroyed carpets floors.it spreads to every thing.its bushes.it smells it swells some things,pulls down things,clogs and gushes others.nothibg escapes it and the clear up feels on going.because it's not a clear cut u see everything's in ashes or blownvto pieces.its just yuk it's just tidying and moving and picking up after water that literally goes everywhere.and seeing problem after problem mount.one after another.

Thanks for the time-frame. You instructed the solicitors late May and the searches are still not in?

@kateandme sorry for your flooding sending hugs sounds traumatic. I guess on top of all that you also have the fear that it could happen again any time. :-(

Exactly that, a side road that we don't ever drive down

Ah, that makes sense. Yes, it was an indemnity policy - we had done the conversion very recently to the sale and only discovered after the sale had commenced that the final sign off from the building inspector had not been received. In the event, the indemnity wasn’t required because when we contacted the building inspector he indicated that it was the electric work that needed inspection and certification - once we got that they signed off on it. Interestingly the property we bought required an indemnity policy because an extension had been built without planning permission - the solicitor advised that an indemnity policy was the best way to go, rather than holding up the sale by trying for retrospective planning permission, which was unlikely to have been granted because the extension would not have met current codes.

I'd be out of there unless you know you can get decent insurance.

Cheating, lying estate agents!

Indeed, there have been delays not of our making, one of which (took 5 weeks to sort) was that my DH didn't look exactly like his 5 year old passport photo so the stupid automatic I'd checking software rejected our ID check, basically didn't believe my DH was who he said he was and it took weeks for them to agree to over ride it.

But actually....if it's not right next to a river that's likely to overflow, and drainage has been put in place then perhaps you will get insurance? Was there a specific reason it flooded?

Thank you all for your kind input, words of wisdom and stories. DH has now been presented with the evidence, we have thoroughly discussed everything and we have decided not to proceed with the purchase. We are both sort of grieving for the loss of our (what we thought was) perfect forever house. I will be tearing the estate agent a new one when I speak to him. He has now probably lost out on 2 sales as the same agent is also selling our house which will probably now fall through. We definitely won't be paying them any fees, don't know if we have any scope for any other compensation for losses of survey money etc, but worth a try I guess.
Another house will come along. You're right, I can't deal with the stress every time it rains a bit. The thought if having to replace everything, maybe multiple times is too much to bear for me. My deepest sympathy to all who have had to do this.

probably the right deiciosn i was going to ask if it was just a mortgage survey or a thorough indepth one

the basic ones dont tell you sweet fa

That's the right decision. I'm so sorry you find yourselves in this position.