Would you buy a home on the river?

[Bodybop]

Lovely house.

We've been looking for years. Finally found one!

But that's just it... river. Thoughts and experiences? Things to know?

Insect plagues if its slow moving...

Depends on the river, surely? What is the flood risk like? I live close to a river, and originally offered on a riverside house, but pulled out once I’d investigated flood risks, past flooding, insurance etc. so I bought a house across the street on high ground.

Depends on where and which river. Bridgenorth on the Severn? Hell no!

I wouldn't because of flooding and rats.

My thought also would be rats.

I have a house on the Thames. No flood risk. I love it.

Argh rats?

It's part of a mill. Done stylish like a New York lift. Medium flood risk.

not a record of it flooding from the river unless I don't know where to look.

why rats?

Not a river but we’re next to a stream. We paid about £1k for a proper flood risk survey. In your shoes I’d do the same.

"Its part of a Mill"

Mill ponds produce flying insect numbers that you wouldn't believe.

Rats like living near a water source, and are likely to be displaced by any flooding.

Medium flood risk, no. You will probably find insurance is an issue.

You need to check flood maps. And flood projection maps which show future risk (estimated) for flooding. The Environment Agency and local council have them. And the environmental search report that your solicitor would do as part of conveyancing will show flood risk in a colour coded map. Check old editions of local newspapers, because they report any previous occasions when the river burst its banks near the house.

Lots more detail needed though. Distance isn’t everything when you consider the topography. Personally I’m very wary of new builds on flood plains, even when they are 200m from the river.

And these days thanks to the bastard privatised water companies and their lack of investment, I’d be checking very carefully whether there are sewerage outfalls that discharge into the river upstream. There are online maps you can google and check. Because I do not want to see other people’s flushed away sanitary products and turds floating past my house.

www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk

Personally I wouldn't.

We live on a 'navigable backwater of the Thames'.
The road has flooded a few times over the last 25 years (only way off the street was waders or boat) but our house is built above the 1947 flood level so the house hasn't flooded. Photo of our road in 2014...
We love it here. The advantage of having a free mooring at the bottom of your garden can't be overestimated 😁.

If it’s an old mill I’d check details carefully. It’s not just about flood maps. Like who owns or has control of any sluice gates and weirs up stream that controls the river flow down the mill and whether there’s a mill race. You don’t want the local landowner - literally - opening his flood gate to save a field etc.

Thank you for this advice all of you, much appreciated

I have but the flood plain was definitely the opposite bank. Absolutely zero chance our house would have flooded. No issues with insects or rats. Insurance you had to check wording. Some places won't insure if you are within so many metres of a river irrespective of flood risk.

My worry would be rats too 😬

Insurance is a bigger worry than rats.

Yes think carefully about rats (not revealed by surveys sometimes...)

And of course flooding (particularly as climate change worsens rapidly)

No! Definitely not.
There will be other houses!

No way. You will end up having to underpin it. Massive Buildings insurance and flooding might increase with climate changes. As for the rats...I grew up near the Thames. They were huge! Buy on elevated land.

My mum recently bought a house on a canal (which is just behind her small garden). My first thought was rats and flies!

Not for me.