High risk flooding area - would you buy a house.

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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?

Thanks @Lollygaggle my Fil thinks he's going to live for ever, if he makes it to 2050, he'll definitely be under water.

Will definitely be looking at that link again. I suspect lots of newer houses around here are on floodplains.

I just did this without thinking and unsurprisingly no flood risk here.

However I live inland up the top a mountain though so if I'm underwater most of the UK probably beat us too it.

I would walk away myself. If you're tempted to continue, phone up now and check on insurance - that way you know if they'll insure property and how much it's going to cost. I'm not sure if it's included in the standard solicitors questions, but if not you can ask if property has ever to the owners knowledge been flooded. Check with the solicitor what answer is.

Oh, forgot to say, flood water can rise very quickly. We were never flooded in our last property, but were affected by the 2007 floods. My friend was late arriving for lunch (due to flood water about a mile way). We sat down immediately as it had been ready a while, her DD wanted ketchup and in that time the road had running water. Our back patio and up to our doorstep were flooded. I went straight into panic mode and started moving some things straight upstairs but I suspect it would have only taken another 15mins if the levels had continued rising, to come in once I knew there was a problem.

Don't even consider buying a house in a high risk area for flooding - you'll live to regret it.

Hmm. Well according to that map, my house (and pretty much the whole town) is going to be underwater by 2030. I have to tell you, I don't think that is going to happen - not in that timescale. Presumably my insurers don't either, because they happily ensure me. I do think it makes sense to look backwards as well as forwards though. I am in an area that hasn't flooded in over 70 years - but if it had flooded a lot more recently, I would be feeling a lot more cautious. Unless you are planning on completely rebuilding, a property that floods every year sounds pretty high risk?

I've never done it but would definitely consider it. I've always dreamed of living close to a river. I would go in just assuming it would flood every 10 years and build that into my thinking from the start.

Perhaps expensive furniture on the top floor? It would obviously need to be the right price and layout

Same.
Run away from this.

I'm gobsmacked. Do you relish the thought of a) cleaning out the sewage b) living in a caravan for six months or more while you clean up c) having your electrics screwed?

I wouldn’t risk it. If it’s flooded before, it’s not worth the risk, challenged and heart ache. I’d be worrying about when it would next happen.

I very obviously wouldn't relish fixing that damage. But unless you have old money, everything is a compromise.

I'd much rather deal with a 10 year flooding than live next to a busy road 100% of the time for instance.

The storm the other day didn't flood our house but turned the road (we live on a mountain so steep hill) into a raging rapid within a minute or so. The drains turned into old faithful shooting giesers into the air.

It was being funneled by the quite high curbs so flowed along the roads maybe 20-30cm deep in some places. Whole thing lasted about 15 minutes but ripped up the road (huge chunks of tarmac gone). The flat area of town was underwater in the blink of an eye.

As quickly as it started it stopped, the drains started working again and all higher areas went back to normal (still flood damage in the flat areas).

Same happens with snow here, it hits so fast that with a minute or two you get snowed out.

This level of complete naivety is why builders still build these nightmare houses.

I feel much the same about flats with cladding, or houses near busy roads. I can't understand how anyone would buy one.

Different strokes different folks.

It's not total naivity. I know people with flood gates in their porches and have lived on boats on rivers that flood .

There is safety in numbers. If the government can save a lot of houses by spending a small amount of money it will.

Of course there is no guarantee of that, but angry homeowners on the news don't make for good election prospects.

You have to look at a) how easy it will be to install flood defences and b) how many houses it will save. What you don't probably want is to be out in the middle of nowhere on a flood plain, because it is unlikely that they are going to bother to spend millions to save one house.

I live in an area where there is some flooding. My house is out of the zones, but the new defences they have installed are pretty impressive. They help protect hundreds of houses so were good value for money.

It's not just flood plains that are a problem. A close relative of mine bought a new build that was built at the bottom of an old quarry. It was basically a housing estate in a giant stone bowl. Even before the houses were built there were delays because of water building up making the ground unworkable.

Thankfully my relative sold before water pouring down the side of the quarry brought rocks down three times and made the houses unsaleable. The developers had already gone bust so people are paying mortgages on houses they cant sell . The development featured on a documentary on poor new builds.

but roads and cladding aren't uninsurable dangerous money pits... you seriously don't seem to grasp how severe a flood is.

Living on a boat (designed to be in water) is not comparable to having your ground soil washed away, having sewerage pour into your walls, foundations, electrical system, having to rip out your walls, chuck your belongs and the long term damage, damp, mold etc... and thats not even including the risk to life that can occur from severe flooding.

Its absoloutly in no way comparable to traffic noise or not liking the look of a house and even the suggestion of comparing it is absurd.

Flooding is pretty much the worst things a house can face, worse even than subsidence.

I'm assuming you have lived through it yourself?

It's fair I don't grasp it as never dealt with it myself. But I know people who are on the 3rd or 4th flood. Perhaps some houses are worth it?

Obviously I'm not talking about new builds on a flood plain here. But historic houses next to rivers etc

Perhaps we are talking about different kinds of flooding, but the houses I know which have flooded multiple times, are built for flooding. They have door guards ready for quick deployment, stone floors, electrics high up.

If you think about it, there is 'survival of the fittest' aspect to older flood houses. Desirable houses that flood every 10 years don't just get ripped apart every 10 years, they are rebuilt with the next flood in mind.

I really wouldn’t. There’s one near us for sale (for millions!) and the garden is under water almost every year to a really serious degree, and the house floods intermittently. The entire village will know this. I would never, ever buy a house on that stretch. The estate agent is lying. They’re hoping some hapless person out of area buys it unknowingly. Ask around!

Absolutely not. Our garden is on clay soil and is very boggy in winter and that's bad enough.

I wouldn't live there if you paid me.

I've been flooded once. We moved, fell in love with a lovely cottage by a river, so tempted. Owners assured us it never flooded but we were very wary, we found out the garden flooded frequently and the house occasionally. So glad we didn't buy it, never want to go through that again. It is so hard to get rid of the mess, the water is the least of it. The smell!!!!

Apply for insurance for the address. You will find out soon enough if it is even insurable.

I bet the people in Derna would have confidently said they wouldn't flood last week. This week thousands of them are dead. People underestimate the power of water.

A river in the UK is hopefully never going to flood like Wadi Darnah but being flooded isn't fun.

This is on clay soil, probably why the roses look brilliant.

So looking at the pictures properly, the garden near the river is flat lawn, with a bank running across and a step up to another lawn.

All the plants shed and greenhouse are crammed into the top corner near the neighbours.

The ground floor is all slate, looks like a patio with wide grout, and it's not old old. Just the odd rug.

You step up into a new conservatory but then down into the actual house.

the socket I can see is probably 60cm up the wall.

It's in a valley draining down to the sea but if heavy rain combines with high tide then all the water backs up at the little bridges and spills across the flood plain. They had a bad flood ten years ago and lots of very old houses in the village a mile away flooded that hadn't been touched before.

I think it's definitely going to be a no. There's lots of cess pits up stream and they all get washed out apparently.