Would you buy a house in flood zone 3? (1 in 30 chance of flooding)

OldEnglish

Seeing a duck in your living room is even worse.

Depends where it is. If it's lying alongside some Jersey Royals on a plate it's not so bad.

I'd get an insurance quote and a dingy.

what flood defense is in the area basically can you mitigate the risk if not and u can't financial cover the risk then leave alone. plenty of nice houses.

I would caution against this. flood events are only becoming more frequent and as this is a small river it would be unlikely to be a priority for flood maintenence in the future with recent cuts to budgets. A factor to consider is how high above the river bank is the threshold of the property? if at the top of a decent hill sloping down to river then garden would be most at risk. if roughly level then building at much more chance of damage in a flood event.

Re Insurance and Mortgage, your mortgage provider wont lend you the funds if you cant get insurance for it. But last year the Government and Insurance companies got together and created Flood RE floodre.co.uk/ to assist homeowners with getting reasonable priced insurance.

To be honest it maybe a lovely house but it wont be for the year it takes to repair it when its flooded againa and you will never be able to sell it.

We had similar experience when we found the ideal house and put an offer into it. We later found that it was a high flood risk area and we pulled out from the deal.
If this is your dream house, it will become your heart breaker if there is a high chance of flooding. Just imagine the inconvenience of living out in temporary shelter, worst is losing personal possession. Not worth the hassle IMO.

Two blokes i work with have been flooded in the last few years, both of them have lived in the same houses for a long time & have never had any issues with flooding before.
Each year it seems to get worse & they dread the rain now. I don't personally think i would chance it, as the weather we have seems to get worse year on year.

I live in a 1 in 100 chance of flooding and moved in a few years ago. The house was flooded in 2007 and so was 1/2 the village. Though only 20% of the houses that were flooded were from the river overflowing, the rest was from surface water which couldn't drain away. Measures have been put in place since but the fact that its been flooded is still in place and will always be. Though the owners of the houses in the village were homeless for up to a year while workmen put the houses straight. Why so long? Lots of areas were flooded thus the spread of builders became very thin. So don't think you will be out of a home for a week while its dried out and repaired. Be prepared for long term homelessness. Oh and the Insurance companies only pay out for so long for rehoming and if the property has been flooded before there will be clauses in place. So if I were you id walk and admire it from a far.

The insurance company will most likely need a report which you will have to foot the bill even if they will insure you or not.

I wouldn't buy.

It was on the news only this week..... some of the residents in Birmingham who got flooded are only just moving back in.... one year later!

deeky

It can't be fun looking at the black sky outside and worrying.

Seeing a duck in your living room is even worse.

deeky

Depends where it is. If it's lying alongside some Jersey Royals on a … Depends where it is. If it's lying alongside some Jersey Royals on a plate it's not so bad.Read lessRead more

Decent chat

If it hasn't flooded before It's more likely to flood now as other areas have improved flood defences it just moves the problem on to smaller rivers which can't cope and surface water could be a big problem too. I'd keep looking elsewhere first.

Since about 17 I been paying rent, at times I'd admit I had been on benefits but never longer than a few months. I worked out I musta paid £45,000-£50,000 in rent so far, yet I could never dream of getting a mortgage. I'd buy a house in Afghanistan if I could.

No, you are nervous and if you another option I would take it.

A boathouse maybe

justanothercid

what flood defense is in the area basically can you mitigate the risk if … what flood defense is in the area basically can you mitigate the risk if not and u can't financial cover the risk then leave alone. plenty of nice houses.Read lessRead more

no flood defence as it is a small river, I thought about having flood barriers installed on door just in case

If it's your dream forever house (floods permitting!) and you have plenty of spare savings to repair any flood damage once the insurance policies have become too high/unobtainable then yes, any other scenario than this NO.
I don't mean too seem pessimistic but I know too many people who have lost so much to flood damage, both financially and emotionally, to me it wouldn't be worth the risk.
I was once in the same situation that you are in, and thankfully we decided against the property by a river, and I recently found out that it got flooded on last year's heavy rain we had locally.

flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/lon…sk/
gov.uk/gov…eas


(edited)

The estate agent isn't Dodgy Domains is it?

Flobadobbob

… https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preliminary-flood-risk-assessments-and-flood-risk-areasRead lessRead more

Thanks, that is where I went, who told me it was a 1 in 30 chance each year of a flood, too risky for me I think

It can't be fun looking at the black sky outside and worrying.

improved flood defences in areas that have flooded , means they will just push the water into areas that haven't or wouldn't .

deeky

Depends where it is. If it's lying alongside some Jersey Royals on a … Depends where it is. If it's lying alongside some Jersey Royals on a plate it's not so bad.Read lessRead more

X)

I dealt with the floods that happened in Christmas of 2015 as part of my job, driving to most of the Calder valley as far as we could get and transferring to dinghys for the rest of the way, in order to check substations. I think I would only buy if I could afford decent personal flood protection for the property such as watertight outside walls circling the property, inflatable skirts or the like. Piece of mdf nailed to the door doesn't last long in a true flood and if yours is a 1 in 30 chance I dare say the inevitable flooding will be severe. Also if it's modern the entire house will be speckled with air bricks at ground level which are perfect breach points for water. It may not rise in your living room but it may damage underneath your floor boards regardless.

On topic - don't bother. Sods law creating this post has jinxed it and it'll flood within a month of moving in.

I would run a mile in the opposite direction.

I did hear a theory about the calderdale floods that it was all the fault of the Romans, they chopped down all the forests around the (now) moors above the calder valley. Hence heavy rain fall all heads for the valley bottom.

No idea how much truth there is in it, but perhaps re foresting the moor land might be worth exploring.

EA Flood Map

Flood Zone 3 - land assessed as having a 1 in 100 or greater annual probability of river flooding. If you have been told that it is 1 in 33. That is very bad.

You can get the expected maximum flood level from the EA, and compare this to the floor level of the house to see what the result of a flood would be, but the levels are modeled not measured.

Not sure if this is available to the general public.

Even with flood barriers at doors, water would still get in especially if the house has wooden floors.

You would have no chance of insuring against flood damage.

I would not consider it.

See if you can get insurance for it & go from there.

You probably will get insurance but the excess for flooding will be in the tens of thousands.

Just offer them less for it and use the savings to jack it 20feet up in the air giving great views and keeping your feet dry.

go for it, keep all irreplaceable items upstairs / in loft

you'll have a very basic but unbelievably tidy downstairs

Too close for comfort. Insurance will also be expensive.

For thousands of years people in flood zones in asia and Africa have built there homes on stilts

larrylightweight

If it hasn't flooded before It's more likely to flood now as other areas … If it hasn't flooded before It's more likely to flood now as other areas have improved flood defences it just moves the problem on to smaller rivers which can't cope and surface water could be a big problem too. I'd keep looking elsewhere first.Read lessRead more

I said that

If you are looking to buy a house in a flood risk area make sure it's at the top of the hill and not at the bottom. If it's flat you're screwed. Most insurance companies ask if you are between 250/400 metres from a water course. The clever ones look on Google Earth and actually tell you just how close you are.