Offer made - house on a flood plane!

[HelterSkelter224]

Hello, just looking a bit of advice please. I've contacted our solicitor but we won't hear back until Monday and I'm in a bit of a panic.

We put an offer on a house last week, and had it accepted (in Scotland). It's a relatively new house, just two years old in a Barratt Homes development. The home report showed that the house isn't on an area subject to flooding however it occurred to me just today to check and the SEPA website says otherwise. According to SEPA the house is at high risk of surface flooding. And it looks like quite a large swathe of land that is affected. Obviously I should have checked this before but it didn't occur to me given nothing in the home report, I read something today that prompted me to do it.

Does anyone know the repercussions of us pulling out of the house sale at this stage, legally and financially, given all we have done is submit an offer? We're nowhere near missives stage, and this just seems way too risky to invest £450k+ in a house that may be uninsurable, unmortgageable and unlivable in 20 years time! My husband was talking about installing flood defences but again, do we really want to be investing £000's in a house to protect it before we've even moved in? This is supposed to be our forever home!

I know pulling out of an offer is severely frowned upon in Scotland but this seems way too risky and it's not like we've just changed our minds!

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts

I would pull out, the information you were given about flooding was misleading, at best, and a total lie at worst.

check the planning application.

ideally the builder and planners have come up with mitigations, like installing a wadi (usually a ditch/pond/park area which is designed to catch run off water).

if it has I would go ahead.

@HelterSkelter224 if you're not near the "conclusion of missives" stage you should be able to withdraw your offer.

https://www.davidcclapham.co.uk/Blog/Can-i-pull-out-after-putting-in-an-offer-for-a-house-in-scotland.html#

Can I change my mind after submitting an offer?
You are free to remove your offer up until the contract of sale is finalised and signed. In Scotland, this stage is known as the “conclusion of missives”. The missives process begins once your offer has been accepted and ends when all the conditions of the sale have been agreed upon by you and the seller.
Changing your mind, especially later in the missives process, can have a time and financial impact for both you and the seller.

There are no penalties for withdrawing an offer at this stage. I withdrew an offer the following day after it was accepted (by Barratts). You have justifiable cause, and your solicitor should understand. It’s not uncommon.

Thanks all, solicitor confirmed this morning this is reasonable grounds to withdraw