Quick poll: Would you buy a house that had been flooded, albeit not substantially?

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Yes or no?
TIA.

flooded by what? a nearby river?

no

river

no

Might depend on why, how often etc, but mostly I think it would depend on whether I (and anyone I wanted to sell it to later)could get insurance.

no

(agree re checking the cost of insurance - can be quite a significant hike)

ooooooooooh are you house hunting oooooooh

No no no no no

and one more time
no

and one more time
no

FIS, the house we wanted have just come back and said they'll accept an offer only just over what was supposedly our final offer. I really love the house, am v v v torn

well maybe twice more

you will worry every time it rains
can you live like that?
mind you i am an old worrywort
my dad would if that helps at all

lol DR!

and climate change , building on flood plains etc, gets more riskier

I didn't buy the house i loved becuase it was next to the river, we got second best house on a hill, and I do feel safer

No. the hassle just wouldnt be worth it. even if it only floods once every 10 years.

oh www, how difficult (and lol at Darrell on her hill!)

what did the survey say about the flooding?

No survey yet, we haven't got that far, we offered, they rejected it, now they've come back, 2 weeks later. I haven't even gone back and said we'll up our offer yet. It's WAY WAY WAY off asking price though now. Eeek!

We did. Although as the house wasn't lived in at the time, we didn't really know just how it had happened. Was probably pretty naive of us, but we love it (still living here). Though ours is not flooding from a river, but drains backing up. We were flooded twice (not to any great depth, all it ruined (all - hah!) was the floors/carpets, and then the water board put in a non-return valve that means it can't happen again.

So I guess what I'm saying might be that if you love it that much, maybe consider what you could do to flood-proof it (if anything), and would it be worth the money to do so.

Possibly (want to relocate to Forest of Dean)

under the asking price or over?

have you checked out its flooding potential on the environment agency website?

you could always accept subject to survey and if the survey brings up a huge risk then pull out

but try and imagine moving all your stuff in and then being a foot deep in water containing raw sewage and the like - it's not only the water, it's the smell, the impact on insurance etc.

but I would get that risk properly assessed first to see where you stand (through the survey) because there could be flood defences going in the town/village etc.

And agian, if it floods , and you decide to sell in the future, it may be hard to re-sell

Absolutely no way never. Unfortunately have been there, done that and would NEVER do it again. As a previous poster said it's not just the river you would need to worry about but the drains. The fallout from a flood lasts for months (peeling plaster, drying out etc). What's more, selling a house next to a river will, in my opinion, become harder over the next few years. Be very wary about what the sellers tell you about previous flooding - they are bound to play down the whole thing. We left a beautiful, lovely, house of my dreams (but one that flooded occasionally) to live in a not so nice house that didn't have the threat of being flooded. Sorry it's long - as you can tell feel quite strongly about it - as you can prob tell

For info, see The Environment Agency, and some publications - this, which has some information about ways of flood-proofing your house, and this, which has advice on products for doing that. The thing for putting in postcodes for finding out flood risk is on the right hand side of their home page.

No, no, no - have lived in a house that flooded and as Foxinsox points out its not just water its raw sewage. You're not talking about risk of flooding - it has been flooded and probably will be again (mine was - several times since moving out). Don't do it - however gorgeous the house it won't seem very gorgeous when you are paddling.