House buying - Seller states No to flooding
Discussion
Hi All,
We are 2 years in on our home and the attached garage has flooded 6 times and risked flooding the house fully last week - we had to lift drains in the drive for the water to flow and sandbag the front door.
Our neighbours state they have helped the lady before when this has happened.
The property was vacant when we purchased as the lady passed away and her 40 year old daughter (who is a lawyer) was selling.
Evidence we can get:
Seller's form states No to previous flooding
Estate agent requested survey to be re-written as the surveyor had written 'ponding' occurs - previous sells had fallen through twice before us with the estate agent advising it was down to builders quotes for extensions being too high
Estate agents photos show drain lids lifted at the front of the house as they were when we visited the property - yes we know we should have thought about that at the time...
Photo and video evidence of the water flowing down the hills opposite and into our drive
Is this worth perusing?
Thanks in advance
We are 2 years in on our home and the attached garage has flooded 6 times and risked flooding the house fully last week - we had to lift drains in the drive for the water to flow and sandbag the front door.
Our neighbours state they have helped the lady before when this has happened.
The property was vacant when we purchased as the lady passed away and her 40 year old daughter (who is a lawyer) was selling.
Evidence we can get:
Seller's form states No to previous flooding
Estate agent requested survey to be re-written as the surveyor had written 'ponding' occurs - previous sells had fallen through twice before us with the estate agent advising it was down to builders quotes for extensions being too high
Estate agents photos show drain lids lifted at the front of the house as they were when we visited the property - yes we know we should have thought about that at the time...
Photo and video evidence of the water flowing down the hills opposite and into our drive
Is this worth perusing?
Thanks in advance
Edited by fastgerman on Wednesday 14th November 14:41
Nothing on environmental searches - a long way from a river / sea / lake etc.
The drains are rubbish so we have been emailing + several face to face meetings with Thames Water, Council, Highways, Private engineers etc. We have gone halves on some work that made an improvement but not fully resolved.
£10k spent so far, reckon another £10k or so needed. Think we would have offered 5% less than we paid if we knew of the issues.
The drains are rubbish so we have been emailing + several face to face meetings with Thames Water, Council, Highways, Private engineers etc. We have gone halves on some work that made an improvement but not fully resolved.
£10k spent so far, reckon another £10k or so needed. Think we would have offered 5% less than we paid if we knew of the issues.
No blocked drains etc, just not enough drainage.
Solicitor wants fees before doing further work.
A family friend who is a lawyer thinks we should ask our solicitor to send a couple of letters with categoric evidence of continuous flooding and request a 5% re-imbursement and no court case.
Solicitor wants fees before doing further work.
A family friend who is a lawyer thinks we should ask our solicitor to send a couple of letters with categoric evidence of continuous flooding and request a 5% re-imbursement and no court case.
Road is public with parking areas.
The actual house has not flooded but the attached garage has - is that not the same?
Yes the drive has tarmac on since the last 10 years atleast - very old and crumbling.
If we didn’t lift the drain lids, it would have come in through the front door. The water was over the damp course.
I think we can fully resolve but will be around £20k all in once done.
The actual house has not flooded but the attached garage has - is that not the same?
Yes the drive has tarmac on since the last 10 years atleast - very old and crumbling.
If we didn’t lift the drain lids, it would have come in through the front door. The water was over the damp course.
I think we can fully resolve but will be around £20k all in once done.
Edited by fastgerman on Wednesday 14th November 15:08
The sellers questionnaire is supposed to protect the buyer though otherwise what’s the point?
Maybe a ‘no win no fee’ lawyer is the way forward?
Similar case:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk...
Maybe a ‘no win no fee’ lawyer is the way forward?
Similar case:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk...
Thanks All for your replies, much appreciated.
On the estate agent - we have this in an email chain.
Survey received which stated ponding and flood risk
Sent to estate agent who confirms the seller says it hadn’t ever flooded or risked flooding as her mother had lived there a long time
We asked surveyor to reword based on the estate agents and sellers feedback (estate agent in copy)
Surveyor rewrites survey....
Another lesson learnt as it was an estate agent recommended surveyor which we also have in an email
On the estate agent - we have this in an email chain.
Survey received which stated ponding and flood risk
Sent to estate agent who confirms the seller says it hadn’t ever flooded or risked flooding as her mother had lived there a long time
We asked surveyor to reword based on the estate agents and sellers feedback (estate agent in copy)
Surveyor rewrites survey....
Another lesson learnt as it was an estate agent recommended surveyor which we also have in an email
Hi All,
Thanks for your replies and especially those who are considering drainage solutions.
Attached is a photo showing:
from the left that the highways road slopes to our property,
the field opposite (which doesn't affect our property),
the hill in the distance where the water runs down a footpath to the left of the field and down our road,
our driveway slopes to our house
Ideas:
As some have written, a gully is possible if it went under the green opposite but must all happen on our land - we can't change the road
We have had some tarmac lifted and turfed as the soil is sand with good drainage but won't handle excess water
I don't think a soak away is strong enough
On the drains - the gutters are into foul water and the driveway drains are into grey water. Yes I shouldn't have lifted the foul water but Thames Water and the Council etc are all fully aware I have this situation and the alternative is water comes into the house
On the wording of the sellers form, its a straight question - has the property ever flooded. A straight answer - No. There is no 'to the best of my knowledge' type vagueness
Cheers
Thanks for your replies and especially those who are considering drainage solutions.
Attached is a photo showing:
from the left that the highways road slopes to our property,
the field opposite (which doesn't affect our property),
the hill in the distance where the water runs down a footpath to the left of the field and down our road,
our driveway slopes to our house
Ideas:
As some have written, a gully is possible if it went under the green opposite but must all happen on our land - we can't change the road
We have had some tarmac lifted and turfed as the soil is sand with good drainage but won't handle excess water
I don't think a soak away is strong enough
On the drains - the gutters are into foul water and the driveway drains are into grey water. Yes I shouldn't have lifted the foul water but Thames Water and the Council etc are all fully aware I have this situation and the alternative is water comes into the house
On the wording of the sellers form, its a straight question - has the property ever flooded. A straight answer - No. There is no 'to the best of my knowledge' type vagueness
Cheers
Hi All,
Again, thanks for all the replies, i'm reading them all if not fully replying to everyone.
This is a 2 year issue for me, do believe me when I say we have tried everything with the departments. We have a local MP (Anne Milton) chasing up actions from the minutes that I take from meeting onsite - seriously.
We had to have surveys to prove it was not Thames Water responsibility - this took about a year and 40 emails, phone calls and face to face meetings.
We can't touch the road, its not ours, but we did go halves on some work - reshaping road, speed hump to slow water down and larger storm drain (but not the drain pipe).
More pictures:
The highways and council have accepted responsibility but they apparently have the following stopping them making a perfect solution:
- full surveys required - in progress
- after survey, they will get fy19 investigation capital budget
- fy20 - fy21 is when they think they can do the work IF approved
- they only have to fix normal weather related issues, not extreme issues.
In my opinion, we still need a backup to the drains being cleared as they only do that once a year and heavy rain fills them with sand nearly monthly.
I will explore the trench / grid to take water behind the bins but it is quite up hill so will need some digging - the foot path behind is at a lower level so a proper grid between gate posts + a pipe going under the green (where the bins are) and onto the footpath is possible.
Thanks
ps still 100% sure the sellers daughter knew this as our neighbours confirm they helped sweep out the water from the garage every few months
Edit - more picture below showing the drain pipe going under the green (where the bins are), clearly not big enough to take the volume. Might be fixed in 3 years time... then I have to hope the drains further up are kept clear:
Again, thanks for all the replies, i'm reading them all if not fully replying to everyone.
This is a 2 year issue for me, do believe me when I say we have tried everything with the departments. We have a local MP (Anne Milton) chasing up actions from the minutes that I take from meeting onsite - seriously.
We had to have surveys to prove it was not Thames Water responsibility - this took about a year and 40 emails, phone calls and face to face meetings.
We can't touch the road, its not ours, but we did go halves on some work - reshaping road, speed hump to slow water down and larger storm drain (but not the drain pipe).
More pictures:
The highways and council have accepted responsibility but they apparently have the following stopping them making a perfect solution:
- full surveys required - in progress
- after survey, they will get fy19 investigation capital budget
- fy20 - fy21 is when they think they can do the work IF approved
- they only have to fix normal weather related issues, not extreme issues.
In my opinion, we still need a backup to the drains being cleared as they only do that once a year and heavy rain fills them with sand nearly monthly.
I will explore the trench / grid to take water behind the bins but it is quite up hill so will need some digging - the foot path behind is at a lower level so a proper grid between gate posts + a pipe going under the green (where the bins are) and onto the footpath is possible.
Thanks
ps still 100% sure the sellers daughter knew this as our neighbours confirm they helped sweep out the water from the garage every few months
Edit - more picture below showing the drain pipe going under the green (where the bins are), clearly not big enough to take the volume. Might be fixed in 3 years time... then I have to hope the drains further up are kept clear:
Edited by fastgerman on Thursday 15th November 15:37
Hoping these photos answer most of the questions.
The area being dug is behind the bins by a footpath. They laid a new drain pipe but doesn’t cope with the volume of water.
We put in the gates and granite sets more because people kept turning on our driveway. FYI second pic above is our driveway.
The area being dug is behind the bins by a footpath. They laid a new drain pipe but doesn’t cope with the volume of water.
We put in the gates and granite sets more because people kept turning on our driveway. FYI second pic above is our driveway.
We asked the council (who own the hills in the photo) about a ditch but they said no as nobody would maintain them...
Yes it probably would be the easiest and cheapest solution.
Along the road, there are only 2 or 3 small grids so the water basically runs over them.
Interestingly, long periods of rain are okay, it’s the flash floods in the summer where the water just runs across the ground and doesn’t absorb into the hills/footpaths/grass.
Yes it probably would be the easiest and cheapest solution.
Along the road, there are only 2 or 3 small grids so the water basically runs over them.
Interestingly, long periods of rain are okay, it’s the flash floods in the summer where the water just runs across the ground and doesn’t absorb into the hills/footpaths/grass.
Edited by fastgerman on Friday 16th November 07:18
Thanks and yes please for the recommendation
Attached shows:
Bottom right - how it was I.e. water just running down the hill onto our drive
Bottom left - small speed bump to slow water + reshaped road to direct water to drain + drain (grid not pipes yet) tripled in size.
Top - as it is now with area of tarmac removed, sandy soil + turf.
Agreed we need to get the rest of the tarmac up also along with your other suggestions. Must have had tarmac over 10 years? We’ve been here 2.
Cheers
Attached shows:
Bottom right - how it was I.e. water just running down the hill onto our drive
Bottom left - small speed bump to slow water + reshaped road to direct water to drain + drain (grid not pipes yet) tripled in size.
Top - as it is now with area of tarmac removed, sandy soil + turf.
Agreed we need to get the rest of the tarmac up also along with your other suggestions. Must have had tarmac over 10 years? We’ve been here 2.
Cheers
And this work done last year - there was a pipe already but it was collapsed with tree roots going through it. Our drive (bins photo) is to the left of this.
We went halves with the council (to get the above work done) along with some private surveys and cleaning, again just to get it done.
There is further high cost work (larger drains along the road) that the local MP is also pushing but will be 2-3 years away...
Edited by fastgerman on Monday 19th November 12:50
Our gutters go to foul water as with everything else directly from the house. The drains lifted in other pictures are foul water.
We have 3 very small grids (15cm Ish) in the middle of the drive that we think join to rain water opposite the house (photo above showing the ground dug with a trench). Either way they don’t have capacity to take away large volumes of water.
Yes, a French drain makes sense by the gates (to flow onto the footpath opposite) but no point installing grids by the house as we can’t connect to foul water and the drains above don’t have capacity. Soak aways also wouldn’t have capacity.
Cheers
We have 3 very small grids (15cm Ish) in the middle of the drive that we think join to rain water opposite the house (photo above showing the ground dug with a trench). Either way they don’t have capacity to take away large volumes of water.
Yes, a French drain makes sense by the gates (to flow onto the footpath opposite) but no point installing grids by the house as we can’t connect to foul water and the drains above don’t have capacity. Soak aways also wouldn’t have capacity.
Cheers
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