Flood Risk Indicator (2)

As suggested in yesterday’s news item (Land Registry - Flood Risk Indicator) the Land Registry’s new Flood Risk Indicator may be of use in simple house purchases, or for the casually interested enquirer, but for commercial transactions it does not seem to be the appropriate tool. Commercial flood search providers Argyll Environmental Ltd, who provide the FloodSolutions products, point out the Land Registry’s terms and conditions for the Flood Risk Indicator state that the service is created “principally for the purpose of providing information and services for the personal use of the private citizen.” It is therefore clearly aimed at residential property and is not suitable for commercial acquisitions. In any event, there is a wide-ranging exclusion of responsibility in the terms and conditions which will discourage reliance solely upon this indicator. Furthermore, Argyll points out that the information used by the Land Registry’s indicator is limited to Environment Agency data only and therefore excludes, for example, risk of flooding from other sources, such as groundwater or surface water which, according to Argyll, accounts for around 50% of flooding annually.