What would you do??

[xXwhenwillitendXx]

Had a lot of previous threads but for background have been private renting current house for 4 years, landlord decided to sell in January and offered for us to buy property.
Have got a really good price for property and below market value in a lovely area.
House is perfect size, we have the mortgage offer and structural survey has shown up nothing major.
However, the property Is medium risk of flood from river. Neighbours have lived in their properties since they where built in the 60's and have said it has never flooded, however water does come to bottom of garden. We are able to get insurence, at no extra cost to if it wasn't a medium risk property.
I really don't know what to do or what options we have. Can't afford to rent again, and even if we could the deposit money will be used on the move and we would never get on the property ladder.
Have looked at cheaper areas, but even those are getting more expensive then the house we have put an offer on.
I really feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Any advice???

Sorry so you can get insurance?

Then I would buy the property!

Yup, got the quote this week, covers all the usual building and contents including flooding. The excess isn't any higher then the average house would be.

Then crack on! And maybe get some sand bags in take some precautions etc. I mean even with insurance it would still be awful being flooded - but half of London is in a flood plain and medium risk 🤷‍♀️

I’ve had cases where mortgage companies haves been difficult but so long as you can show you’ve got insurance should be fine

If it’s below market value and you don’t have to move etc I would def not pull out because of this

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t buy it

What do you mean by 'water does come to bottom of garden' - is there a river there? Or does it pool there after heavy rain? How far above the bottom of the garden is the house?

That personally wouldn't worry me. Our house is actually in a high flood risk area. The previous owners had lived here 40 years and never had any serious flooding and never had to claim any even minor damage on insurance. I've lived in lots of places that are prone to flooding, and I think in 4 years, you would already have had some indication it would be an issue. There can always be a once in a century type of storm, of course, but it definitely wouldn't put me off. Our solicitor wasn't concerned either and we had no trouble getting insurance.

Well you have the house, then fields, then the river.
When it floods it covers the fields and comes to the bottom of the garden.
The garden is slightly raised bearer the house and the house is slightly raised.
We had no questio s asked in regards to the mortgage which surprised me.

Medium risk according to what? Our previous house raised concerns with insurer every year at renewal as it was within 50 metres of a large river but we could see going back to Anglo-Saxons(!) that we were on the raised up part that had never flooded ever. This was backed up by the council's flood risk map which showed we weren't actually in the at risk area.

Your solicitor should be able to advise you as to whether the flood risk is significant or not. But it 99.9% won’t be or your insurance company would be charging you extra

Medium risk on gov website, and the searches that have come back from solicitors and surveyors.
Solicitors said she can't advise us on what to do she just needs to inform us of the risk.
I've been looking again at other properties and there is literally nothing else we can afford, and that's within a 10mile radius.

To be honest, I don't really think there is an option

Go back and try and figure out how much above surrounding fields the house sits. If the water can spread “out” a long way before it goes “up” that won’t always be reflected very well on flood maps.

Honestly though, you have to pay to live somewhere, paying a mortgage on a property that might not increase in value is still a better financial option than paying rent.

Its all open fields around the surrounding area, so plenty of surface for the water to spread over