Research carried out by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) found that fewer than a third of house hunters research the flood risk of a property before buying. And this is despite one in six homes in England and Wales being considered at risk of flooding.  

The ABI created a set of red/amber/green ‘traffic light’ flood risk symbols that it encourages estate agents to include on property listings to indicate flood risk. There has been little uptake of these at least partly because of a perception in the property industry that they could discourage buyers from even considering high risk properties.  

So if you’re thinking of buying a property, you need to take responsibility for checking its flood risk yourself.