Page 4 | High risk flooding area - would you buy a house.

BronzeProp · 2023-09-13T12:05:19+00:00

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?

WellThisIsFun1 · 28/10/2023 14:08

Nope

SeaBreezeDream · 28/10/2023 15:00

We had water damage from a leak which flooded the ground floor. We had to move out for 6 months and the stress was enormous. Even though the insurers were amazing it was still like a full time job for me to oversee the renovations and deal with the paperwork and litigation etc and after 15 years I'm still a little in shock about the whole experience.

The thought of that happening plus the added issues of dirty water, sewage, all the outside land also flooded, and the safety risks as well ....... why on earth would anyone choose that?

SlightlygrumpyBettyswaitress · 28/10/2023 15:32

You would be bonkers. Flooding is absolutely miserable.

Spottywombat · 28/10/2023 15:43

Thr Environment Agency & Natural Resources Wales have excellent multilayered flood maps.

Always worth a look when house hunting.

MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig · 28/10/2023 16:37

A town near us flooded in the storm last week. Businesses and homes under about three feet of water. Several families now homeless and lost treasured possessions. Businesses finding out that they’re not covered for flood damage and are going bust because they haven’t got £000’s for repairs. Absolutely heartbreaking for them.

Pictures appeared online of the roads flooded at least two other times in the last century. Can’t imagine anyone will be buying there now.

Original poster

BronzeProp · 30/10/2023 22:11

Thank you everyone, I just don't think we could handle it.
As a teen I came back to find out home burgled, what @Ritasueandbobtoo9 said really struck a cord. I don't want my kids feeling that unsettled.
My ex boss had a house flood - they did incredibly well out of the insurance but it came at the cost of his marriage and his wife certainly bore the brunt of sorting everything out, he'd already checked out the marriage years before.
I think all these memories have really killed any warm feeling to potential flood property.

OP posts:

Disco123456 · 31/10/2023 02:35

Our old house flooded from the rising water table a few years back. We now live on a big hill, never ever buy a house with any likelihood of any kind of flooding!

intherough · 31/10/2023 04:08

NO!

Fifireee · 31/10/2023 05:09

No! No! No! No!
Flooding is only going to increase. It’s devastating. Absolutely horrible.No!

Fifireee · 31/10/2023 05:10

Flooding is also incredibly dangerous. People have died recently. I would just hate to live under that constant fear.

user1483387154 · 31/10/2023 05:30

Heck no, a huge amount of money needed for both insurance and actually dealing with the situation after it happens. Way too much stress

bluejelly · 31/10/2023 05:39

Given the way climate change is going, I would say a definite no

XVGN · 31/10/2023 08:37

No. Can you imagine if RM were to introduce a new filter - exclude flood zone properties? It would be wonderful. So they won't! Ask them.

Crazymadchickenlady · 31/10/2023 11:34

My daughter is just buying one that flooded for the first time ever four years ago and is on the side of a river (and not again since). However it is really cheap, is a great location for her, is an old stone terrace cottage and has french windows and a bridge across to the back garden on the first floor so she has an escape route. She can buy it outright in cash. There is now a government insurance scheme called reflood for houses that have previously flooded making insurance affordable. She can also come and live with us for a few months if it does flood again.

Saschka · 31/10/2023 12:28

BronzeProp · 13/09/2023 14:35

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.

So many red flags there!

Saschka · 31/10/2023 12:39

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?

Or unsaleable! If you can’t insure the house, nobody will buy it, so you are stuck there.

Original poster

BronzeProp · 31/10/2023 13:39

If I was younger like @Crazymadchickenlady 's daughter, I get it. Family nearby to move back in with in a worst case, roof over my head, lots of energy and most importantly priced accordingly I get why you'd take the risk.

I can't even be arsed to wash my kitchen floor with the frequency it should be done. I think the flood scrubbing would finish me off.

There was/is a row of beautiful Georgian houses next to the Thames which always flooded pre the Thames barrier. My parents used to be so smug their 1960s estate house was on a hill, looking down on them.

OP posts:

BotterMon · 31/10/2023 13:42

Gosh never! Garden may be pretty because it's been well watered over the years.

Mortgage if needed could be difficult and insurance well nigh impossible.

Mothership4two · 31/10/2023 13:53

Short answer no. Glad you have changed your mind OP.

We nearly bought a lovely looking cottage near Fordingbridge with a stream at the end of the garden, but something about it's position put us off - it was in a valley and the cottage was set lower than the road but the stream wasn't that much lower. We were worried about a flood risk and the estate agent was being very vague about it. Later that year that area flooded very badly including the cottage. We thanked out lucky stars. Insurance cannot compensate you for the inconvenience and distress or return sentimental items.

heldinadream · 31/10/2023 15:39

Crazymadchickenlady · 31/10/2023 11:34

My daughter is just buying one that flooded for the first time ever four years ago and is on the side of a river (and not again since). However it is really cheap, is a great location for her, is an old stone terrace cottage and has french windows and a bridge across to the back garden on the first floor so she has an escape route. She can buy it outright in cash. There is now a government insurance scheme called reflood for houses that have previously flooded making insurance affordable. She can also come and live with us for a few months if it does flood again.

I can absolutely see why your daughter is doing this. But I think she - and you - will regret it.
Climate change is real. If it's flooded before the chances are it WILL flood again, and the frequency of floodings is only going to increase. There's REASON the current people are selling it really cheap, and that is that flooding is a major distressing life-disruptor and everyone, no matter how young, how gung-ho, how energetic, is really better off avoiding it.
Think hard on this. Talk to people who've been flooded - NOT the people flogging her the house!

CoffeeWithCheese · 31/10/2023 16:09

Honestly - it would depend - personally I'd avoid a house on a riverbank for other reasons, but my mum lives on one and because of how elevated the house is from the garden, I've never known anything other than the bottom of the driveway flood.

Other things that DO piss me off about the riverbank location though:
Dogging (sadly not joking)
Getting around all the fishermen having to move their fishy tripod things to get to the house
Anti-social behaviour
Fire setting (see above)
Local idiot youths ending up IN the river
Out of control off-lead dogs getting into their garden (RIP Suki Cat)
The river can stink
Twits on jet skis thinking they're James Bond

After the other week I take flood maps with a fucking large pinch of salt - our street has NEVER flooded in living memory - fucking well did with Storm Babet (never ever been so glad for that ever so slight incline I curse at the end of every dog walk) and we're still pumping out water from the cellar (actual house was fine but lots of the neighbours weren't). It completely caught everyone out - the utility guys (who were here a LOT as all the gas mains failed with it all) said that they'd never seen it like this - the streets they expected to have problems didn't, the ones that never have problems flooded.

Saschka · 31/10/2023 16:53

heldinadream · 31/10/2023 15:39

I can absolutely see why your daughter is doing this. But I think she - and you - will regret it.
Climate change is real. If it's flooded before the chances are it WILL flood again, and the frequency of floodings is only going to increase. There's REASON the current people are selling it really cheap, and that is that flooding is a major distressing life-disruptor and everyone, no matter how young, how gung-ho, how energetic, is really better off avoiding it.
Think hard on this. Talk to people who've been flooded - NOT the people flogging her the house!

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Agree with all of this - unless the house is so cheap that she can just write the money off and walk away and abandon it when she wants to move, this is a mistake. She will not be able to sell it.

Bouledeneige · 31/10/2023 18:38

Crazymadchickenlady I think your daughter will live to regret it. Apart from the fact that it's likely to be uninsurable and her property, furnishings etc will be regularly destroyed - her asset will be valueless in a few tears. I would never advise a family member with their whole life ahead of them to throw away their money on something that will have no value in the future and lots of heartache in between. She will want to move at some point in the future and she will have to start again with saving to buy. Crazy mad.