Would you tell the world your house floods?

[nomoss]

 

A rather hysterical woman who appeared on Sky News yesterday succeeded in getting Philip Hammond and a few officials there today for her to shout at, but she's really not done a lot for the resale value of her house [:(]

Edit: Houses in that street are currently listed at around £750,000.

We have family who live in a similar area. Their property floods regularly, but they knew that when they bought it in the '50's, and the house is on pilings, well clear of any floods to date.

They simply make sure the cars in the garage are raised well off the ground, put necessities in suitcases in their small dinghy, lock up, and move elsewhere until the water level goes down.

 

 

[Russethouse]

Good for them..however  I think the key was that they knew the house floods when they bought it, for many of the people being shown on TV it is a new experience and they feel that various changes have impacted the way the water behaves. Lack of dredging in Somerset is obviously a factor and not everyone is a fan of the Jubilee flood relief scheme in Berkshire, building on the flood plan is a common gripe....

What difference does it matter who she tells her house floods, firstly I believe you are obliged to declare it when you sell and secondly the insurance companies will soon let any potential purchaser know....

[Patf]

Nomoss - if you live in France one of the things mentioned in the house documents is chance of "inondations."

Our commune is prone to flooding, but they keep the ditches cleared regularly and fields have underground pipework to drain into the ditches.

[YCCMB]

If ours does, we'll have no choice. Mind you, when you buy a house as close to the Thames as ours, you're a bit dim if you don't take it into consideration.

On the plus side (and I'm still trying to stay positive) it'll be a good selling point if we can say we survived untouched after the wettest winter since the 18th century and the highest river levels on record.

[nomoss]

I've bought and sold a few houses in UK and don't remember ever being asked to declare if they were subject to flooding, and one was on a river bank. Maybe this is a fairly recent requirement, but I thought the planned "dossier" for buyers was scrapped.

I have never consulted an insurance company before I bought a house, either.

Patf. I have lived in France, often in frequently flooded areas, for quite a long time. The requirement for a study of natural risks is a fairly new addition to the surveys required when selling, but I am aware of it.

Ditches and underground pipes only drain land if there is somewhere lower down to drain to, keeping them clear certainly helps, but enthusiasm for this tends to wane as the memory of floods fades.

I have lived in a couple of places where it really floods, and even there storm drains were severely blocked by rubbish, undergrowth, and even quite large trees by the time the next flood disaster struck [:(]

 

 

[YCCMB]

From recent experience, I can advise that if your house is on the market and people come round and ask:

1. Is your house difficult to insure against flooding or

2. Have you ever been flooded

You can choose to lie or tell the truth. But since the Goverment announced about 18 months ago that it was withdrawing the subsidy previously paid to help insurance companies cover the cost of paying out when homes suffer from flooding, it's a consideration uppermost in the minds of most purchasers of  waterside properties. Because of they can't insure (or if the cost is prohibitive) then they have to consider whether they REALLY want to buy...

[Russethouse]

There are fairly often questions on a local forum I belong to about flood risk and insurance and in some cases the areas being asked about are several hundred yards from the river...our first home in Reading was fairly close to the river and neighbours had a mark well above head height where it flooded in 1947 ! Postcodes are often the key even when they cover a decent sized area

[nomoss]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]From recent experience, I can advise that if your house is on the market and people come round and ask:
1. Is your house difficult to insure against flooding or
2. Have you ever been flooded

You can choose to lie or tell the truth.
[/quote]

 

Sure, but that's not the same as deliberately advertising the problem[;-)]

 

 

[nomoss]

 

Not much point in trying to hide the facts in this town though!

[URL=http://s857.photobucket.com/user/nomoss/media/ZZZZWXertafloodheights_zpsd2e9ce3e.jpg.html][IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/ZZZZWXertafloodheights_zpsd2e9ce3e.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

 

A small town in the Ebro valley. The heights are above normal river level. The mark at the join of the stone and white wall finish is 7 metres. The top of the scale is around 10 metres.

[NickP]

I totally agree with Betty but must add, I doubt very much if there is an insurance company going who wouldn't know the exact position regarding flooding in any area, so if someone was unsure of the answer to the problem the first stop would be the insurance company; if you had any brains?. Having lived in East Molesey in the late 60's we know all about floods. So when we went to buy our holiday home in France a riverside property, first thing we asked about was  insurance and were assured that  flood insurance was available. We have been flooded in France right up to the house once in ten years and the garden is 200ft long, but the house is protected by a 3ft bank of soil. Rather like plenty of houses in Shepperton, Chertsey and Thames Ditton etc.which are built on stilts. Having said that nobody could have legislated for the weather conditions in the last couple of months. By the way when we bought in France we had to sign shed loads of paperwork saying that we knew the house was on a flood plain,  absolving the French equivalent of the environment agency of any responsibility.

[YCCMB]

[quote user="nomoss"]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]From recent experience, I can advise that if your house is on the market and people come round and ask:

1. Is your house difficult to insure against flooding or

2. Have you ever been flooded

You can choose to lie or tell the truth.

[/quote]

 

Sure, but that's not the same as deliberately advertising the problem[;-)]

 

 

[/quote]

No, but you asked "would you....?" and I'm simply saying that if you choose NOT to, you can then be forced to lie, or to tell the truth. But folk now have a tendency to want to know if a property is insurable before they buy, and at what cost...which seems to be a situation that's changed since you had dealings with a waterside property. Just saying.

[dwmcn]

nomoss,

Back in medieval/Saxon times, people used to build houses on stilts. But that was to keep rats out.

David

[Gardengirl]

Our house insurance in SE England came up for renewal recently; the papers had the same wording as last year regarding flooding - were we near any watercourse which flooded. We can answer truthfully that there is no such watercourse that floods. We do have a small stream beyond our long garden but it has never approached our land, and there's a drop between the garden and the stream. If you were to continue the insurance and claim in future for flooding, the insurance company won't pay out - it's not a risk that I think is worth taking.

I feel very sorry for people who have houses that have flooded for the first time - maybe the government will reinstate the support they gave so that insurance companies will provide cover.

Thinking about houses on stilts, part of a hotel not far from our home is built of stilts, as a fast stream passes underneath. It's close to the River Loddon, which floods the car park and right up to the hotel fairly regularly. Several years ago they had to get clients out by boat - nowadays they are more used to the idea and use a tractor. All the guests staying there for Christmas had to leave their cars away from the hotel and river, along the grass verges; we've not seen flooding as bad as it was around Christmas and we've lived there for 40 years. I suppose the same is happening at the moment, but we're in France.

Permission was granted for a cinema complex and massive car park just along the road from this hotel, despite many of us complaining that it was a flood plain. Of course, the whole area floods badly, but more times recently than ever before. I get emails and phone alerts from the council when there are road closures because of flooding or anything else and the large roundabout adjacent which leads to Wokingham, Reading and the motorway has been flooded three times in the last week, closing the road totally or at best taking it from 3 lanes to one lane, and leaving it without traffic lights. Will the planners listen in future? - I doubt it.

[nomoss]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="nomoss"]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]From recent experience, I can advise that if your house is on the market and people come round and ask:
1. Is your house difficult to insure against flooding or
2. Have you ever been flooded

You can choose to lie or tell the truth.
[/quote]

 

Sure, but that's not the same as deliberately advertising the problem[;-)]

 

 

[/quote]

No, but you asked "would you....?" and I'm simply saying that if you choose NOT to, you can then be forced to lie, or to tell the truth. But folk now have a tendency to want to know if a property is insurable before they buy, and at what cost...which seems to be a situation that's changed since you had dealings with a waterside property. Just saying.
[/quote]

I'm not sure if you correctly read the subject, or the OP.

The question was intended to ask if anyone here would draw attention to the unfortunate location of their house on national television.

I certainly wouldn't, found it very odd, and find it odd that you should say that if I choose NOT to broadcast my problems on TV I can be forced to do something.

 

[Russethouse]

 In that case who would have been on TV during the recent floods ? There was an elderly couple from Marlow who were interviewed today, maybe they should have refused too?

The fact is that things have moved on, for example you are obliged to declare any disputes with neighbours you may have...and just FWI many people check what their insurance liability is likely to be, even my daughter who is just renting and only moved about a mile away knew that her postcode was rated differently to ours for burglary etc.

In addition, if you were up to your eyes in 'muck and bullets' or several feet of flood water, would you really care ? Somehow I think priorities may be different !

[YCCMB]

I thought my answer (albeit perhaps not a straightforward answer to a closed question) was clear. If you choose NOT to advertise your house's propensity to flood, and are asked directly, then you are surely bound to provide an answer. So (whether or not the word sits well with you) you are forced to provide a reply. It's kind of up to the individual how they choose to respond, but as the UK doesn't have the 5th amendment, and a "no comment" is as good as an answer anyway in this regard, you either lie or you don't. My real point was that whatever you decide to say it's a pretty safe bet that any potential buyer will find out the truth of their own accord. So you can choose to look like a lying muppet or just be upfront, depending on how badly you want to sell.

Anyway, unless you come to live round my way from outside the area, the majority of people know only too well where the flood risk is.

[Cendrillon]

Betty I think you should rename your blogspot and call it Thamesonnowhere (or even everywhere[blink]) blogspot.

[Frederick]

Without holding back the Thames by sluices and the Thames Barrier holding back the tidal surges  this map shows what London would get. 

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="Cendrillon"]Betty I think you should rename your blogspot and call it Thamesonnowhere (or even everywhere[blink]) blogspot.

[/quote]

No, no - NowhereINThames, surely!

Sorry Betty - couldn't resist!

[YCCMB]

I'm holding back on "Nowhere UNDER Thames" until we see what happens over the weekend.

We are now unlikely to be able to sell our house without mentioning the flooding. Tonight brought out the heavy-hitters in the forms of Jon Snow and George Alaghia. Last week, we were definitely a "nowhere" sort of place, but right now we're certainly "on the map". We're getting more publicity than the last winner of "Britain's got talent"

[Russethouse]

Without holding back the Thames by sluices and the Thames Barrier holding back the tidal surges this map shows what London would get.

Well look on the bright side, that would finish Eastenders !