High Risk Surface Water Flooding on House Purchase

[Samara26]

I'm in the process of buying a house and I have checked the Gov.Uk flood risk, which turns out to be a high risk for surface water flooding.

Is this something I need to worry about? I wasn't told by either the estate agency or the owners who did 2 viewings with me and built the house.

What should I do?

I've been looking for a house for a year and now all the rates have gone up so I'd have to buy in a cheaper area or a smaller house- either way I'd lose a lot of money.

I thought high risk was 1% or there abouts?

My property come up as high risk surface water on the Gov website which put me into panic mode. However, i joined the local facebook group and asked the question and everyone in the estate said there has never been flooding due to surface water.

That's good to know, but was your house insurance and car insurance a lot higher than average? That usually determines the risk level

My friend had a similar issue when buying a 3rd floor flat. It took far more phone calls than it ought to have for them to finally accept that while it was indeed 20m from the river, if the 3rd floor was flooding everyone would have far bigger problems!

Our house has a high risk of surface water flooding. We live at the bottom of a valley so to be expected. The previous owners lived her for 40 years. They never had an flood damage, but put in an additional drain to offset any risk. Our insurer wasn’t concerned. We accept its a risk, but it’s a lovely home and it’s a risk we can live with given all that’s been done to mitigate it. That said, our previous homes have all been not high risk, but we still experienced regular surface water flooding in the garden/road, and we managed that just fine.

We had that with a property we helped to look after. DH went and stood in the stream with a pole marked out in feet to show how much higher the property ground level was than the massive flat floodplain the other side of the river, and I took photos. We also pointed out that the railway main line adjoining was much lower than the property too, and that had never flooded either. The insurers accepted it and insured the property.

Surface water flooding is nothing to do with rivers or streams. It’s water running off hard surfaces with nowhere to go. Either the drains cannot cope or the fields and non built up areas do not retrain the water, so it runs off and floods elsewhere. It’s very hard to predict. It’s helped by schemes that have been designed recently and design clearance/expansion but it’s difficult to stop surface water running off in urban areas unless substantial works are done. Usually putting in soil beds and redesigning streets.

The gov search says we are high for surface. But the actual environmental report from the solicitor said negotiable.

On ours when I looked at the map I panicked. But it basically looks like every house at the end of a road or corner is high risk which is ridiculous! We also love slightly on an incline (grass in front) and in front of us is a huge nature reserve so we're fine.

It’s not entirely about what’s in your street. It’s what’s absorbed before it gets to you. Especially run off from streets higher up in urban areas.,However soil to soak up water really helps.

So I got a building insurance quote and it was £100 for a year.. is that cheap or expensive? The house contents was £50 but not sure if I put the right parameters in as I don't have all the details of the house yet...

@Samara26
Those are both cheap.

When you insure a property, you can usually say the purchase price is nearly accurate but for rebuilding, you would have demolition costs first. So a new house, purchase price is about right due to the builders’ profit. An older house with character and expensive fittings, it’s very much a case of looking at real costs and not purchase price.

£50 looks low for contents. Look at everything you own and work out the replacement cost from new. All freestanding electrical equipment, furniture, curtains, carpets, computer, jewellery etc. Everything. Do it room by room and don’t forget garden chairs!

How on earth are people supposed to know the demolition costs of their property?

What's standard for building insurance for a 3 bed?

our survey included the rebuild value of the property

There isn’t a standard! Is it stone built? Is it bog standard bricks? Does it have skates or concrete tiles? What about a fireplace snd chimney? There’s lots of guidance about what to include but many people find they are under insured. Even if you just have a smallish claim and you are under insured they won’t pay out. It needs to be reasonably accurate and you have to include all costs. Around £200 -£3000 per m2 depending where you live and complexity of build and higher end features: plus 10% for unknowns. Damage to next door for example! So 1000sq ft x £250 = £250,000 rebuild costs plus contingencies such as demolition. Going below £250 per sq ft is a risk.

Didnt really affect the price, was cheaper than my previous 2 bed terrace that was up a hill. Think my annual premium is £200.

I have the same question before putting offer, it is a end terraced house, there is a narrow and slightly slope road on the side of house, garden is also slope and owner build 2 levels on it, gov.uk said there will be 3.3% higher chance on surface flood, should i go ahead?

It really depends on the specifics IMO. Is it built on a flood plain adjacent to a canal, or does it just fall in one of those random areas that are automatically classified as high risk from the topography, but visiting the site it is very obvious that there is no real risk and appropriate runoff?

The nearest river is estimate 0.4 miles away (assume from google map), i can’t see any mark of flood from outdoor and indoor, the owner lived in there for a long time and extended the side and read of the house, if there is a risk of flooding i will assume they will not make these extensions?

Unfortunately i just find out this matter after leaving the house so no chance to ask the owner/agent.

In a similar situation with a new build...
no idea what to do - guess it's how much we trust the builder's plans to mitigate?

Flood plains are not surface water draining. They might flood from rivers and streams. Surface water is just that: it accumulates on surfaces and cannot drain away. Many places have some risk. However it can be minimal. It’s often worth trawling through Google to see if any flooding has been reported and what world have Ben done to help prevent it. Even clearing out drains will help. The local
council might have a strategy too.

Reading through the replies here no one has mentioned the implications for you selling on - If you decide at some point, you want to move out of it.
we are in a similar position with a Property at high risk of surface water and river flooding.
there’s no history of flooding in the area and the property is slightly raised, so even if it did flood, we’ve a relatively low chance of being directly affected.
HOWEVER, we plan to live there for 15 to 20 years and then sell and move into somewhere that will fit our needs more when we are elderly. All the evidence suggests that flooding is increasingly likely. When we come to sell by that point, I imagine that anyone needing a mortgage will be refused on such a property. Even if they did get them Mortgage, they would then have to contend with very high insurance premiums. They would also be aware that it would be next to impossible for them to sell again.
that leaves us with only potential buyers who are cash buyers who don’t mind paying a very high insurance premium, and don’t mind not being able to ever sell the property on themselves…. So no one.
If we bought this property, we would be stuck with it for the rest of our lives, and whether it floods or not Would not have the option of selling it and freeing up the money to either buy somewhere else or pay for a care home for us, or in the event of our death given inheritance to family….
I think that’s worth some serious thought personally.

knock on neighbours doors. ask them. it's worth it.

How are you insuring it now? Presumably you do. Flood mitigation schemes or planting might help in future. Plus there are schemes for insuring houses in high risk areas.

Zombie alert.
OP must have moved by now!