Buying a “flood risk” property

[TwoDrifters2]

I don’t know if we’re even crazy to be considering this and wondered if anyone had any stories of either success or woe to help us make our minds up.

Basically, we have fallen in love with a rural property. It’s pretty much perfect in all regards but we have hit the following snag…

We did a land registry search which included a “flood risk indicator” that said there was a “very low chance of flooding from rivers or the sea which means that it is unlikely to flood except in extreme conditions.”

HOWEVER…

When you enter the postcode into the government’s site for checking flood risk (flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk/postcode) it comes back as a HIGH RISK for surface water or flash flooding.

We have asked the vendors if they’ve ever had issues and they have said the field at the back can sometimes get a little waterlogged but that there is sufficient drainage generally.

My own childhood home, if you enter the postcode in the above website, ALSO comes up S high risk for surface flooding. But I know for a fact that we have never had issues there in over 40 years. So I’m not sure whether to take comfort in this or not!

Would this put others off? Will we find insurance to be a hassle?! Help please!!!

My house is on a flood plain. I’ve never had problems getting insurance and premium has never been expensive.

Yep, Karcheer, that's what I'm talking about... This map shows my area still above water (just) but major access routes rendered impassable, and nearby civic hubs partially submerged. My local authority has nothing in its strategic plan about planning for rising sea-levels or flooding due to increased extreme weather events, despite this looking set to collapse the regional economy. Friends and neighbours, who have had no idea about our future risk, as we're not historically at risk, either don't want to know, or are convinced 'the council will put something in place'

"If we all do nothing", which is what appears to be happening.

I very nearly did it, twice (same house, fell through a second time)

It had a devastating floods 7 years ago, a week after we should have moved into it it flooded again.

There were some mitigating circumstances the first time (all a bit technical for me, water was drained into the wrong river?!) BUT the river runs right through the village and low land floods at 2.5m. So it peaks easily with heavy rainfall anyway.

Dodged a proper bullet!

@WarmthAndDepth I guess things will slowly move away from the new coastlines, it won’t happen over night...so services will move, roads will be built etc...

My new house is no where near the new coastline. It’s just this surface water thing.

I'd agree that it's worth checking the insurance first.

The discrepancy about the postcode search versus another search is that if you're on a slope but all the same postcode, your risk of flooding is much less at the top of the hill than the bottom but it may be the same postcode.

When the flood maps were changed a few years ago, our house, previously not shown as a flooding risk, suddenly became one, but from a water source that has never extended over into this area when in flood, which is strange. Having said that, we had surface water flooding in the summer of 2007, when hundreds of other properties (and the whole of Tewkesbury) almost disappeared under water. (And the drainage round here is still crap, although we have improved our own considerably) In the great scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse, but it was the most horrible experience of my life, and we only had the garage and garden flooded. Watching water rising and knowing that there is very little you can do other than try and mitigate the damage is incredibly stressful. I have wanted to move for a few years, despite the massive improvements we have done to the house. I thought we would spend the rest of our lives here, but I dream of living on top of a hill so that, every time it rains hard, I don't go into a blind panic. I would never ever again buy anywhere near a river, and the higher the new property the better.

I’m increasingly alarmed and angry frankly about the amount of building allowed on flood plain areas. Planning policies and decisions continue to favour development companies at the expense of their new occupants and neighbouring residents for whom floodwater is not only shifted into new areas but increased in depth where it shifts into built up areas.
I’d be really cautious about this now even if your local projections and risk/benefit come out in favour . . .
Good luck op.

We have asked the vendors if they’ve ever had issues and they have said the field at the back can sometimes get a little waterlogged but that there is sufficient drainage generally.

how do we trust the vendors are being truthful?!
If you were feeling suspicious, you could see that as a politician's answer. They seem to have answered a different question from the one you asked:
Q does the house flood?
A the field gets a bit waterlogged

Perhaps you need to be more precise in your questions so they have no wriggle-room.

I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. It will also be a more difficult property to sell, should you need to.

I live in a rented property and it was only last week during the thunder storms that we discovered that the street has a history of flooding. We were told this while we watched the water rapidly rising towards our front door. We are now moving out 🤣🤣 it was so stressful and we felt so helpless. Thankfully it stopped with inches to spare but if it had rained again it would have entered the property. It's not a headache anyone needs

@zebbyzebbo That is what we REALLY don’t want. That worry every time it starts to rain… Or if you’re abroad on holiday but frantically checking the weather report for back home!

I'll admit to being particular anxious about such things. That said, watching heavy rain with an uneasy feeling (and having sewage come up through overloaded drains) was bad enough - flood maps put us at 'medium' risk for surface water.

Our evacuations were related to a very specific set of circumstances related to sea/river ('very low' risk), so I'd absolutely do all the research you can if you have any thoughts of going ahead.

My property has a high risk surface flood rating, but when you look at the detail, it is a very small part of the garden where some rainwater collects for a few hours after heavy downpours and is at most a couple of centimetres high. There is no risk whatsoever to the property. Next door - who are right next door - are low risk.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

@senua I paraphrased but the actual response was: “I have spoken to the vendor and they have never experienced problems with flooding in regards to the house. Due to the properties location if they do have a lot of rain it runs into the ditch that runs along the bottom of their property (alongside the farmers field). As long as the ditch is well maintained there are no problems, if it is really substantial rain they said it sometimes floods onto the paddocks but only for an hour or so until it flows down as well. The ditch if it becomes flooded would also run into the farmers field. The vendors have been there for over 10 years…”

@Reedwarbler @romdowa and others who’ve experienced the trauma of flooding, I am so sorry, it sounds horrendous.