As a homeowner, you have several responsibilities to reduce the risk of flooding and manage the impact if it occurs. Here's what you can do:
Check your flood risk
The first step is to understand your property's flood risk. You can check this using the Environment Agency's flood risk checker. This tool provides valuable information on the likelihood of flooding in your area and helps you plan accordingly.
Protect your property
You are responsible for safeguarding your home from flooding. This includes implementing property-level protection measures that go beyond sandbags, such as flood barriers, water-activated flood bags, and other modern flood defence products. These options offer a higher level of protection and enable faster recovery after a flood.
Examples of property-level flood resilience measures:
- installing flood barriers on doors and windows
- using non-return valves on drains
- elevating electrical sockets
Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures are both cost-effective and easy to implement, providing homeowners with more control over managing flood risk.
Maintain your private drainage
Homeowners are responsible for the upkeep of any private drainage systems on their property, including gullies, drains, and external pipework up to the stop tap or boundary of their property. Ensuring these systems are clear and functioning effectively helps prevent localised flooding. If your drainage connects to shared access roads or crosses third-party land, you may have additional responsibilities to keep them in good working order.
Prepare for flooding
In flood-prone areas, it’s essential to have a flood plan in place. This could include signing up for flood alerts, knowing how to turn off your utilities in an emergency, and having sandbags or other flood barriers ready to deploy.
Insure your home
Acquiring building and contents insurance that covers flood damage is crucial for financial protection. Some insurers offer reduced premiums for properties that implement PFR measures. Reviewing your policy and ensuring it includes appropriate flood cover is recommended.
Maintain private cesspools and septic tanks
Regular maintenance of cesspools and septic tanks is also the homeowner's responsibility. Flooding can damage these systems, leading to pollution and health risks, so ensure they are inspected and maintained to minimize damage during heavy rain or flood events.
Additional resources
Flood Resilience video by Mary Dhonau OBE
You can also watch this video where Mary Dhonau OBE explains how to reduce the impact of a flood using household items.