Buying house at high risk of flooding

[ZeeDaa]

It’s in Greater London. As far as I can tell, no recorded instances of flooding on this particular street, though there have been on others nearby…and there’s a stream at the bottom of the garden. Anyway am not so worried about likelihood of it happening, more what it means for future mortgaging and insurance. My lender has said they’re fine to proceed and the vendors have insurance…should that reassure me? Or am I risking having an unmortgageable house in the future? WWYD…?

We were in a similar situation house at the bottom of a canal the current owners have been there over 20 years and it’s never flooded. As in the canal was above the house. Anyway my mum and my in-laws said not worth the risk for the future. I think of the house often.

I know that locally, people have been refused insurance on properties that are supposedly near flooding, although they have never flooded and there are balancing ponds and measures to drain rainfall.

Don’t do it

Oh gosh that’s worrying. @Absentosaur Is there a reason you’re saying don’t do it?

It’s not so much flooding, rather that it only takes one idiot leaving the lock open for it to overflow. I’ve seen this happen on my local canal and back gardens were flooded before they figured out how to shut it again.

We recently moved, and plan to be in this house for decades. Risk of flooding was a firm deal breaker for me.

Check with your insurance company.

There is an online site where you can check flood risk then you need to get the correct insurance.

It might be that you need to use a broker for insurance - I’d be checking insurance comparison websites to see prices, companies etc.

@ShesTheAlbatross why was that?

I know someone who has had their insurance refused for flooding risk very recently. They have lived there 20 plus years and the whole area has never flooded - though there is a river 0. 4 of a mile away. They are low risk on the government flood risk, but their insurers have said now : no! They have been insured with that insurer for 5 years previously. They have argued and are putting in a complaint.
With climate change etc - and high rainfalls I think you'd kick yourself. The fact that the place has never flooded before doesn't mean it won't in the future. Why make life harder for you.

It also depends on how well the local infrastructure is maintained. If debris is allowed to block drains and rifes, the area is more likely to flood.

Personally I wouldn't take the risk. We live close-ish to a river also in Greater London and it regularly breaks its banks in heavy rain. I wouldn't want to be right on top of it. Also, you never know what the situation could become 20 years from now, if water levels rise etc.

I put the address into money supermarket and it offered insurance but at twice my current rate - so £100 pcm rather than £50

It will make my life really difficult if I have to pull out, and it’s hard to choose that when I can get mortgage and insurance now… but also what if I’m left with a worthless or unmortgeable house in the future.

We were flooded 3 times in our old house and every time lost everything downstairs as it was around 3ft of water. We never had problems getting insurance because we were directed to a government backed insurance website called flood assist. Yes it probably will be more expensive and we couldn’t even get a quote from a comparison website, they all wanted us to phone to discuss it further.

Here’s the website

https://floodassist.co.uk/insurance/flood-re-insurance?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18898485044&gbraid=0AAAAADLJKBrC5ZpukBaVeRykSw4xCQsVt

We live on an area at risk of flooding. Our house has never flooded but our neighbours has badly. Regarding insurance, only one company will insure us. If you are checking insurance quotes, I’d ring them up, as many online will say they will insure you and the price but when you get to the very end, I find most won’t actually insure us. We had no idea our house was in a flood risk area when we bought it.

Underwriters change their terms and conditions and which properties/postcodes they're willing to insure all the time. They won't get very far with a complaint if that's what it's been refused on

It would be a dealbreaker for me too. Getting your house flooded causes devastating damage. You'd be homeless for a very long time.

Do you even need to ask? Absolutely not. Your property will be worthless, and you will NEVER be able to sell it. So many people have homes and businesses around rivers - particularly the Severn - that are not insured. Even if they have never flooded, no insurance company will take the risk

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

The risk of being left with something unsellable, and possibly unlivable in, however slight, would be too great.

The thing is that it’s never flooded in reality…there’s a stream at the bottom of the garden but it’s down a bank…and the garden slopes up a bit to the house…so I feel like flooding is very unlikely in practice. It’s more the ramifications of it being designated that that worry me. But like I say it’ll also cause HUGE problems to pull out now.

Go speak to an insurance broker to get a grown ups view on insurability, rather than a meerkat's view.

It depends on flood risk for me. Surface water risk is a bit yawn. Rivers or reservoirs are something I wouldn't want, but I guess that's baked into the location.

Thank you all! Any recommendations for decent insurance brokers…?