Buying a house in a flood risk zone – bad idea?

If it was a really nice house in a good location i would look into the possibility / cost of putting in some flood protection around the property.

Just out of interest though does anyone know if having added flood protection to your property you would be able to then get flood protection on the insurance which could not be had previously? Assuming potential floods are recorded as being able to reach say 100-150mm above your thresholds and you’ve protected to say 500mm to be on the safe side. To me that should be seen as doing everything reasonably practicable to prevent damage if a “freak” flood was to overtop your defences. Maybe hoping for a bit much there.

If everyone stopped turning their gardens into hard paved areas we would have much less of a problem as a lot of water would be absorbed into the ground at source rather than just channelled along to somewhere else to cause a problem.

Call Tower Gate Insurance[/url].

They were one of the few to quote us on a house (that had a large extension with flat roof) we looked at buying this year. Ridiculous premium though.

i guess you learn to adapt.

know a guy that lives next to a railway line.

he got used to the noise – but got pissed at all his shit falling off shelves from vibration.

so he blutacked everything down.

living in a flood plain – you might get webbed feet or grow gills – ala waterworld.

A fantastic analogy, as usual Hora

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Jesus wept I thought of Swiss Tony too post-writing it. 😯

Are you ignoring the small fact that the OP said this property HAS previously flooded to make some sort of point?

pfft! heresay.

Thanks for all the input. Big debt yes, but still room for some flippancy (Or I wouldn’t have asked on here!), but thanks TooTall.

It is the nicest house in town for the best price, and not the only one at risk from rising water, but it’s not dirt cheap either. Will be asking for more info on the last flood – If it was a trickle down the back stairs that got the floor wet then adaptations might provide enough peace of mind but if it was a gusher through the front door I don’t think I’d take the risk. Definitely a concern that more extreme weather may be becoming more common and that flood defences planned for the town are likely to concentrate on the town centre and may make things worse on the outskirts either upstream or down… (Levels were raised upstream last year by a huge whirlpool forming where the two rivers meet, bet they weren’t expecting that to happen!)

You could just spend a few grand making it a bit more flood proof:

http://www.flood-guards.co.uk/

A flood plain is just a line drawn on a map by someone.

I just don’t think I’d ever take the risk of living somewhere like that, fortunately in Huddersfield there are plenty of hills to live on!

Can you just build some relly thick walls around the house to create a barrier?

If it was a trickle down the back stairs that got the floor wet…..but if it was a gusher through the front door……

I’ve never been flooded but am within 100m of a lake, and even though I’m about 30m vertically higher than the lake some companies won’t cover me!

My sister struggled to get contents insurance for a flat she was renting, because it was right by the river. It was a second floor flat.

We pay over the odds because there’s a river at the bottom of our garden. The garden’s 300 feet long and slopes downhill the whole way – if our house floods half of Darlington would be under water.

A flood plain is just a line drawn on a map by someone.

I think you mean a map. A flood plain is plain on which a river floods…..

Miketually in Look at my fancy house willy-waving 😉

seems to me like they might have been just . Flooding damages more than just the interior and your posessions you know ?

Miketually in Look at my fancy house willy-waving

The flood water almost reached the stable once 😉

😆

FIL is a retired civil engineer ,he used to specialize in river and tidal models ,and did a lot of work on dams for hydroelectric schemes.
He get still gets the odd bit of consultant work and is shocked by some planners casual attitude to ancient flood plain areas.
Very much,”Oh it hasn’t flooded round here in years ,it will be fine”.
There is still an ignorance and lack of understanding in to how some rivers and waterways need to(and used to) be maintained and looked after,or it will come back and bite you.

I just don’t think I’d ever take the risk of living somewhere like that, fortunately in Huddersfield there are plenty of hills to live on!

Did I just read ‘fortunately’, ‘live’ and ‘in Huddersfield’ all in the same sentence? 😯

“See, thats where I would see the opportunity to get a really nice house a lot cheaper, because so many people would have exactly that reaction.”

first rule of buying a house. location.

a nice house in a shit area is still shit.

This.

And chances are you’ll want to move at some point. Which will sell faster – a smaller house away from a flood plain, or a bigger, cheaper house that sits in the middle of one?

I worked on the original project that underpins most flooding maps – the flood estimation handbook – on the hydrology bit. Those were the days!

I would look at the EA maps, get the history of flooding etc. Basically get the facts out and see what it looks like all together.

It’s not just river flooding you need to worry about mind it’s also the sewers. Your house may not flood, but the sewers often will back up if flooding happens near by and flood your house that way.

Personally, unless it’s very cheap or the area really hasn’t seen much historic flooding (i.e. look back over the last 100 years) I don’t think it’s worth it.

There is a flood database on the british hydrological society website where you can look for historic floods by river etc.

Which is great – if the OP wasn’t asking for advice about the biggest debt he’ll ever get in to.

I only provide flippant advice if the the OP has had their question answered seriously.
You can check back if you like, it’s a rule of mine.

Any way, I said I agreed with binners after he had posted a picture of his roadriver.

If everyone stopped turning their gardens into hard paved areas flood plains into large housing estates we would have much less of a problem as a lot of water would be absorbed into the ground at source rather than just channelled along to somewhere else to cause a problem.

There is a large housing estate in Chippenham, called Monkton Park, which the River Avon curves around. It’s actually built on a bund, setting it a few metres above the flood plain, which used to flood regularly, until the river was dredged and a new weir put in. Recently there were suggestions that as part of the drive to increase the town’s population even more, houses could be built safely on the floodplain. Now, there have been a number of occasions when the river level has risen to the point that, while it’s not gone over its bank, the area itself has filled with water! Great for those residents who wish to have water features without needing too much effort…
Frankly, the whole idea is bloody daft.

Wouldn’t do it
Especially at the bottom of an hill

Wouldn’t do it
Especially at the bottom of an hill

Agree, seen a few properties flooded due to run off from fields that backed onto them.