Buying a house in a flood risk zone…..

We’re in the process of buying a house which is about 300 from the River Tees, which has never flooded, at least to the owners knowledge. The flood report shows it is at ‘high risk’ of flooding from the Tees, with a 1 in 75 year chance. Insurance doesnt seem a problem, with normal premiums when i check on GoCompare etc. Has anyone moved into a place with such a risk? What were your experiences, thoughts? If you have flooded, how did it affect your premiums and/or ability to get adequate insurance since? It seems that most of the villages in the area we want to be are at some sort of risk.

Yep happily live in a house by a river, its about 4 ft away. Its not a problem, but it is a risk. I’d look with a critical eye about how its likely to flood if it does. We’ve been close to flooding out (within about 2ft) but it would have taken much more water to make up the last ft, unless a tree came down the river or similar.

The new place has a waterfall. I likes the water

Mates in Keswick and Cockermouth have been flooded 2 or 3 times recently. If it happens you just have to renovate using flood resistant techniques – special plaster, stone/tile floors, removable furniture.
Those flood maps used by insurers aren’t especially accurate.
EDIT – I’m not making light of it, as it’s obviously a big issue here. If I really liked the house and the price was right etc and currently insurance isn’t an issue, I’d still go ahead.

We’re technically at high risk, but if the river ever actually reached the house half of County Durham would be underwater. The river’s at the bottom of the garden, but the garden is very long and slopes steeply down.

My old man lives in Marlow and is about a mile from the Thames which “floods” occasionally (breaks it’s banks) He nominally lives on the “flood plain” and his house is “flood risk” I don’t think his insurance is high because of it.

Is it 300 ft up a hill?

If you believe in climate change, then we’re going to see ever worsening storms of higher intensity, personally I wouldn’t touch it, and look for somewhere at the top of a hill. Just to add to that, historic patterns are no indication of the future these days.

Ah, should say 300 metres from the Tees, and unfortunately, not up a cliff…

Those flood maps used by insurers aren’t especially accurate.

It depends on what the insurer’s purchase. A friend of mine produces these for the insurance companies and they can purchase varying level products and the top end stuff is as good as it can get!

Is the flood report using data from the Environment Agency? You can check if ts in a flood warning zone by going to the EA site on gov.uk. Do that and get back to us!

Think about when you come to sell it. The situation is not likely to get better…

Is it 300 ft up a hill?

A friend of mine lives on a hill, and was flooded out when a nearby stream burst its banks during a storm, and started flowing through her house.

Been there. It wasn’t nice

Think about when you come to sell it. The situation is not likely to get better…

Suspect that is the best advice so far!

I had 9″ in the downstairs on Boxing Day, house is still in the process of being reinstated. last time it flooded was 1948 apparently. Don’t know the total claim, but I bet it’s around £60000, £10k just for alternative accommodation for 12 months, £5K contents and £45k buildings or maybe more.

My house was a bit dog eared, walls were a bit rough in places, old kitchen units, bit of an ugly gas fire, alot of the decor was old fashioned that I’d painted over. skirting had been painted a hundred times, electrics were really old, some DIY bodging by previous owner etc etc

So, on the plus side, brand new kitchen, brand new flooring, all new electric wiring downstairs to current regs, all new carpets lounge, stairs and landings, all downstairs walls waterproof rendered and skimmed and ceilings skimmed, all new skirting board downstairs, all downstairs and stairs and landings redecorated. new hearth stone, new woodburning stove and fitting all paid for.

Downside, probably devalued my house, lost the lovely sofa and can’t replace, last years buildings and contents premium was £140, this year about £1250 (that’s with the same £300 excess as before). altho I’ve been told that will reduce over the years if I don’t make a claim, I don’t know what to expect long term, don’t think I’ll ever be paying £140pa again for buildings and contents insurance.

I think I’m going to have to look at the increased premiums as sort of loan repayments to a major home improvement.

Also got upto £5k grant from government for flood defences to my property, that’s ongoing.

As boxelder, quite a few local lower lying houses have now been designed inside with flooding in mind.

Same as RS’s comments.. climate change would lead me to look at other properties personally. I was talking with a lass last year before Kendal and Penrith flooded and her profession meant she measured river activity closely and was on about a 1 in a 45 year chance.. the next day that 1 in a 45 year chance came! Then Carlisle! driving down the street lined high with gutted interiors wasn’t that nice to see.

Having spent last Xmas /January transporting sandbags to those in need.

No thanks.

My neighbour at the bottom of the hill in the old mill has done what box elder describes. And effectively tanked the downstairs and tiled up the walls and put sockets etc all up high.

Which is fine till the wife needs to move the sofa upstairs and im away with work.

I’ve been down there before shifting furniture with them in a mass panic during unexpected flooding

I had the same decision to make when I was looking for a house. The insurance companies were saying no way, so i moved somewhere else. Weeks later the place flooded and i was so relieved i chose somewhere else. It’s just not worth it. Life is to short to be scared of rain.

If it is cheap, it is cheap for a reason. If it is not cheap, look elsewhere.

300m from river but how many metres above river?

I had 9″ in the downstairs on Boxing Day,

I’m sorry, but fnarrfnarrrfnarr

The flood report shows it is at ‘high risk’ of flooding from the Tees, with a 1 in 75 year chance.

Are you sure it’s 1 in 75? The Environment Agency uses bands, and usually High means 1 in 75 or worse, so the risk may be much higher than 1 in 75. If the risk is that bad, and if you are still going to consider buying, I would want to investigate a lot further than just relying on the basic Environment Agency website result* (or on an insurance comparison website for the liklihood of cover/price of insurance).

Edit * If that is effectively what the ‘flood report’ is largely based on or consists of.

The Tees has always flooded, Yarm area in partcular, but since the barrage went in, up the reaches of the tributaries too. Where are you looking at?

Bear in mind that whilst there is the obvious (?) flood risk of rivers and streams bursting their banks, there is the slightly less obvious risk of flooding arising from surface water making its way off the hills and/or down the sides of the valley en route to the river or stream at the bottom of the valley.

https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk

‘To the owners knowledge’.

For once I agree with hora

I once looked a house near hatton of fintry near the river – does it flood i say. Owner says not in the 10 years they lived there.

I googled the address with the word flood just after it and there was a picture of the river flowing through the house 18months earlier . I assume they repaired the damage from their own pocket and it was never recorded as a flood on insurance so they could sell up.

Midlifecrashes, its at Croft on Tees.

Postcode?

Nope. I wouldn’t.

It’s my job, developing and managing flood risk management projects. Been doing it for ten years now and I wouldn’t dream of buying a house with a known risk of flooding.

Not solely because of the risk of flooding but what the consequences of that constant risk does to the personalities of the homeowners. People change, attitudes to risk change.

I’ve worked in flooded areas, stood in houses knee deep in contaminated water and appeared before angry and scared groups of people in public meetings.

Given the choice, would I roll the dice and become one of them? No way, never, not when there is another option available.

Don’t forget it’s not just your house, it’s your car(s) too. They’d be written off.

I’d be more worried about the toxins coming from the water rather than the water itself…..

I was in exactly the same position as you OP. I took the risk, after all it was only a litle stream really.

Fast forward 3 years and a number of close shaves and I couldn’t sleep whenever there was a heavy rain alert. I spent nights clicking refresh on the met office rain radar. Eventually I convinced my wife to move. It was that or have me committed!

She agreed. We moved in the February. The house flooded the next December.

It wasn’t the flooding event I was scared of, it was the upset to the family. Six months out of home. Nowhere that I could rent with the dog and cats. The loss of resale value (which is ultimately my kids inheritance). All that lot. Despite the fact I wasn’t there when it flodded I wish I’d trusted my instict and walked away.

I live on top of a hill now.

Well if it’s Croft, they have had a lot of their 75 years in the past 20, the river has been over the top, and the bridge closed. Doesn’t necessarily affect your house though, but these things seem to be getting more common. The bank has been raised, but it’s been within inches of being overtopped several times since. (Grew up in Middlesbrough and used to go canoeing and fishing between Darlo and the airport, so tend to notice river news about the area.)

The sooner people stop buying houses on flood plains the sooner they will stop the stupidity of building on them.

Don’t do it. And if you’re young don’t buy less than 20 metres above sea level.

Fast forward 3 years and a number of close shaves and I couldn’t sleep whenever there was a heavy rain alert. I spent nights clicking refresh on the met office rain radar. Eventually I convinced my wife to move. It was that or have me committed!

This. Don’t bother, its insane to buy a house with a flood risk in this day and age, unless its on stilts.

Saw a presentation by an environment agency guy the other week. Theres only so many years in a row you can say “unprecedented”. Flood prediction is nowhere near an exact science – in fact they are only doing slightly better than stabbing in the dark.

Last December, Xmas eve I rode a great ride in Calderdale. The next few days it turned bad. They are still recovering now 🙁

Funnily enough, I used to live 300 yards from the Tees (a bit further inland), but about 75 yards uphill from it. Always felt smug about flood risk until the hillside flash flooded and turned the whole of our side passage and utility into a tributary. 🙂

Guy I vaguely know through racing came home from his clubs Christmas party to find the back 2/3rds of his house had disappeared into the river. Then had to watch the rest of it collapse.
When they left for the party it was raining (heavily) but the river was about a kilometer from the house. And 2 or 3 meters below the top of the bank.

Flood plain of course.

Also ~25 years ago.

Another thing to remember, the “1 in 75” sort of thing is a bit of a guesstimate, it may be based on the best possible analysis but in a lot of places, records aren’t really long enough to put a good number on things. And that’s before you consider the effects of additional development, “hardening” of rivers (increased flow from upstream) and the possibility of climate change playing a role. If it’s really going to be one year in 10 then the house is pretty much unusable.

Some friends of ours get regularly flooded – they cope but it’s no fun and may well get worse in the future (there are active plans for more building on the flood plain).

My parent’s house is on a flood plain but behind a 10ft flood bank. They’ve been there 40 years and, while the house has never technically flooded, the flood water does seep into the cellar. Seen it 8ft deep in there a few times! We fitted an automatic pump a few years ago and it keeps the water down below 2ft easily as the water seeps in slowly. Whilst technically the house is not a flood risk the flood defences locally are in a poor state of repair and the new-build estate at the top of the town has put the storm drains under massive pressure whenever it rains heavily, to the point it flows down the street most times.

I dread having to sell it when the time comes so no, I wouldn’t buy a house close to a river. All these new estates pooing up on flood plains is a disaster waiting to happen.