Flood risk
The seller's questionnaire says the house has never flooded and the map still shades the postcode. Which document is a memory, and which is an area check?
The questionnaire is a memory, and the map is an area check. The seller's form says the house has never flooded, which is their recollection or their declaration, not a measurement. The map still shades the postcode because that is what the long-term flood check shows for the area. The survey has not adjudicated which voice wins, and it has not measured a flood depth. Both papers can be true in their own terms: a seller may not recall a flood, or may deny one, while an area model still shades the street. Neither document is the other.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Memory is limited by who lived there and what they are willing to say. An area check is limited by being an area check: it does not walk your hallway and it does not certify a particular January. The home survey, if it found no mark, is a third sentence about the day of the visit. Do not collapse the three into a single reassurance or a single alarm. GOV.UK's flood check remains the shade on the postcode. The questionnaire remains the seller's account.
Give the solicitor the questionnaire answer and the map extract side by side. If insurance or a lender asks what flooded, show the seller's words as the seller's words and the map as the map. Do not alter the questionnaire to match the colour, or ignore the colour because the seller was definite. You may also ask the seller to confirm the answer in the usual enquiries. That confirmation is still a memory. It still does not redraw the area check.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are you treating the seller's never flooded answer as their account, not as your finding?
- Is the shaded postcode an area check rather than a tide mark you saw?
- What should the pack keep from each document without merging them?
What are the typical next steps?
- Label the questionnaire as the seller's memory.
- Label the flood map as an area check.
- Keep both, rather than letting one delete the other.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the seller has lived there a long time, does memory become the map?
No. A long residence can make the recollection better informed. It does not convert the questionnaire into the England flood map, and it does not remove the shade from the postcode or turn memory into the map. The shade remains an area check.
If you find an old news item about the street, which document is that?
A news item is another account of an event, not the seller's questionnaire and not the long-term area check. Keep it separate, and do not pretend the survey measured that event or redrew the area check. It is a third kind of paper.