Selling a house in a flood risk

[Yummylemon]

Desperately want to sell our house as we want to buy our dream home which is not yet on the market.

We’ve done a lot of work to it over the years and put a brand new kitchen extension on a couple of years ago. It’s in a beautiful location in the countryside but not far away from a river. When we bought it 7 years ago there was no risk but the government have since revised the risk and we are now at medium risk of flooding rising to high in 2036! It’s never flooded. We’ve had quite a few really positive viewings but no offers.

Do we have any hope at all? Is there anything we can do?

I feel for you op, it's such a shame when things change beyond your control when you buy a house. Tbh, it would give many people alot of pause as potentially in ten years time they may wish to sell and find it unmortgageable in the worse case scenario! I'm not an expert so can't advise but as someone looking to buy now, in a climate conscious world of buying its a factor that would put me off any house.

@Imisscoffee2021 thanks for replying. If I was a buyer I wouldn’t buy it either, gosh sometimes things really are unfair!

I always check the flood risk before viewing but accept I am probably unusual in that regard! It will come up in solicitor searches and some people will be ok with it and others won’t.

Move sooner rather than later and be prepared to take a small hit id somebody loves it

There are people out there that will no touch it with a barge pole and others that it won't bother too much.

We had much the same issue when we went on the market. Our risk of flooding rose from low to medium in the time we were living there. From surface water flooding not from the rivers though.

We had one issue where a nearby watercourse got blocked and sent a load of water down our street and pouring into all the drains outside the houses. The council came and supplied everyone with sandbags while they unblocked it and cleared it so the water went back into the water course as designed. It was for a few hours and was stressful but none of us got any floodwater in our homes. The sandbags were for a precaution. The watercourse has stood in situ doing its job for many, many years without issue. Now its been cleared and unblocked, it probably won't do it again for many, many more.

We did have to declare it on the TA6 form though, and this, with the fact we are medium risk of flooding, meant that we thought it would be impossible to sell the house. But we did.

Our buyers loved our house and wanted it and it never seemed to bother them.

I would list it anyway and you may find someone who just isn't that bothered. But you wont know until you try.

The property will still be sellable, and people are still interested to take a look - as you have had some viewings. The defining factor will simply be price. You may not have reduced enough to reflect the increase in flooding risk which has arisen since you purchased the property. With a medium risk and close river proximity you probably cant achieve what you paid in 2019/2020. Particularly when you also add the huge increases we have had in borrowing costs since then - plus the prospect of further increases this year and next. At the end of the day someone will love it and buy - it but that pool of people is now much smaller - and they wont/cant pay at the rates it would have achieved previously. An EA agent is likley to gloss over this and have overvalued. Wish you luck getting your dream home, if you really really want it, just keep making significant price adjustments until someone decides your home is worth the extra risk.

Our house was listed as flood risk but I just asked the neighbours who had been there for years and never had a problem, so we went ahead.

You could contact the local council and ask what plans are in place to prevent homes being flooded. They have plenty of time to act on this before it becomes high risk.

DS-i-Ls home flooded twice, badly, and in the end the local council rebuilt the sides of the river. It's never flooded since.

Also, my parents lived in a flood risk area, and despite water sloshing from the burst river right up their street, a simple board in front of the front door stopped it getting in. There are ways around this issue.

We live a decent distance from a river but historically it flooded a lot but defences put in have changed it for the better. Older folk still mention how the town flooded when they were children so I do check op and I’m sorry to say I wouldn’t consider your house.

I agree with what @DrySherrysuggests. My DC had been looking in an area which is a medium flood risk and it is supposed to worsen in 2035. The EA was very upbeat about the area saying thousands and thousands of people would be affected and they saw no real risk. However DC imagined being there 5-7 yrs and worried that what might not be a problem now might change in 2033 so walked away.
Interestingly the houses just beyond the flood risk are >£30k more expensive.
Maybe do some research local to you to find out where the price increase kicks in and price competitively.

That's a bummer that it's changed since you bought the place!
I'm also someone who checks out the flood risk of a property before viewing - hence I live in a property (almost) at the top of a hill.
But I know many people who love in lovely houses in a flood risk area, so don't despair. My friend lives in a place where the river regularly bursts it's banks, and floods the houses on her side of the road. Her kitchen and garage have flooded twice since she moved there.
If I were you, I'd just market it - people like me won't view, people like my friend will buy if they love the house.

I use Area360 on RM as this clearly highlights flood-risk properties that I would normally ignore. My personal opinion is that these properties should be left for the ignorant (don't know the risk), the foolish (see the risk but don't care) and the well-informed local (know the risk but understand the likelihood). The later will factor in the potential issues when they wish to sell on.

The way they factor that in is by price.

Keep the price the same and hope to attract one of the first two or reduce the price to attract the third type.

I wish you good luck (from someone with a low flood risk highlighted!).