High risk flooding area - would you buy a house.

[BronzeProp]

We're looking at a cottage needs a lot of work, big garden, along a river.

The garden is showing as high risk of flooding on the EA map. The estate agent fobbed off any question about flooding.
A friend of the neighbours said that the garden floods probably every year and the house has at least once in the last ten years but we haven't been told this directly.

It ticks a few boxes for us but I'm very nervous about the water.

Anyone got any experience/thoughts about flooding?

You probably won’t be able to insure this, so you won’t get a mortgage.

I would never buy in a flood risk area. Ever. EVER.

If it already floods every 10 yrs, I’d stay clear. Very likely flooding will get at lot worse over the next 10 years..

We walked away from a house that had flooded in 2013, and it was a massive wrench. But I don’t regret it. We’ve made other compromises for the house we went for in the end (further from the station, closer to an A road than I’d like) but the flood one was a definite.

Check if you can get insurance on the property, it’s easy enough to do online. I bought a house that’s in an area that’s high risk for surface water flooding. Admiral wouldn’t insure it but Aviva would for eg. The LA have recently upgraded nearby drains and the vendor said there’d been no flooding on the TA6 so I was comfortable with it. I talked it through with the conveyancing solicitor and decided not to get a flood report but that’s also an option. I wouldn’t buy a property in area that’s high risk for sea/river or groundwater flooding though.

I would check with the environment agency (on the web) what flood zone it is in.

IIRC there are three zones, one is essentially flood plain, the next 1 in 100 years, the next greater than 1 in 100 years. You should be able to see which zone it is in, and its relative position in that zone. There is also a "sea level" flood map on here, which can tell you how much the sea level has to rise in order for a place to flood. You can check this out with the river levels.

You should be able to check out insurance beforehand and whether it can be insured.

Would I buy it ? Depends on a number of things. One is is there any new flood defences going in ? This has happened in my area recently, making some houses that used to be very risky a lot less susceptible.

The other would be cost, whether the price really reflects the fact that it may flood and style - whether it is set up for living in based on the fact it may flood.

Bear in mind that also with flooding it is not just that your house fills with water every few years. A lot of flood water can be contaminated with raw sewage making cleaning up after a flood pretty unpleasant.

I could see myself living in a place with a high risk of flood if it were cheap enough, but I would want to go into it absolutely with my eyes open. I can imagine spending every winter wondering whether or not your place could flood every time it rains is not for everyone.

Absolutely not. I'lt seems like a ridiculous act of self sabotage.

Are you mad? Nope, not with somebody else's barge pole

No

No. Not worth. Living along a river sounds idyllic, but if there is a flood risk you may be stuck with a house you cannot insure or sell.

no I wouldn't buy a flood risk property

Personally I wouldn't, as I wouldn't want to deal with the consequences of flooding. People lose so much of their belongings and have to live somewhere else for weeks/months while the property dries out, and you run the risk of going through it over and over again potentially. It's not just water either, its sewage too and all the debris that goes through your house.

You may not be able to get a mortgage or insurance.

The EA should not be fobbing you off though, it is a perfectly valid question and one that surely every solicitor will want an answer to?!

I’ve been in a flood. Myself and all my neighbours had to evacuate. And it is shocking just how quickly flood waters can rise.

I would never choose to live in an area that is high risk for flooding ever again.

I wouldn't even consider it. A little bit of water goes a long way and causes a lot of damage.

@skyeisthelimit makes a very good point. It isn’t just water. It is sewerage, debris and all kinds of stuff. And it stinks.

And you might not have time to save your personal belongings. And the damage can take a long time to get fixed. You will have to stay elsewhere.

It's not just drying out the house. Sewage has gotten inside. New furniture , flooring decoration. Every time.

Why would you even consider buying this?

It will be uninsurable and a money pit. Of course they aren't going to tell you.

I follow a Youtuber who just bought a house, its quite far back from the river but on a flood plain (surveys flagged that). The previous owner said the bottom of the garden flooded a few times but it never gets anywhere near the house. One week after moving in the whole thing flooded really badly.

The previous owners clearly just wanted to offload a money pit dud to the next idiot to come along. They obviously weren't going to say 'well actually this is aquamans dream house and for half the year you can park your yatch in the living room'.

The survey showed what would happen but they stupidly took the owner (who has a vested interest to hide/lie about its) word over facts.

No!!!

Absolutely not. My DH works in environmental science and our top criteria when we bought was to avoid ANYTHING at risk of flooding because
it's
all
going
to
get
worse.
Sorry.
It really is.

You can look up where will be underwater in 50 years time. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11755149/Map-reveals-areas-plunged-underwater-2050-amid-sea-level-rise.html#:~:text=Communities%20as%20far%20inland%20as,rising%20at%20their%20current%20rate.

Even areas that are dry now may be underwater in a few years. You may quickly be in a house that is unmortgageable or unsellable or , at best , uninsurable .

In our area they are building new houses on land that floods and are already having huge problems sinking pilings . I would always consult flood maps etc before buying and avoiding anything that is at risk . Too easy to be landed with a white elephant otherwise.

This is a better link to the map https://coastal.climatecentral.org/map/11/-0.1212/51.4848/?theme=sea_level_rise&map_type=year&basemap=roadmap&contiguous=true&elevation_model=best_available&forecast_year=2050&pathway=ssp3rcp70&percentile=p50&refresh=true&return_level=return_level_1&rl_model=gtsr&slr_model=ipcc_2021_med

The garden is so pretty!
Thanks everyone. It's not even cheap and although the owner actually lives there, the estate agent just keeps claiming he doesn't know anything, even lied about how long it had been on the market.

Pardon me the links are for water levels in 2050 , not 50 years. Many people will still be paying their mortgage then .

No.

And to add, please try to avoid using this EA again if at all possible.

Check with insurance companies whether it will be insurable.

There is a house near my in-laws which is prone to flooding, but it's gorgeous. New people buy it every couple of years or so and all the locals just sit back and wait for it to happen again. There must have been ten different families who've bought it since I've known them.

Ask the locals....