Has my house flooded before? Check the flood history of a property by postcode

Enter a postcode and this check reads the Environment Agency's two flood-history registers at the map point — the Historic Flood Map and the Recorded Flood Outlines — and lists the recorded flood events within about 250 m — the most recent eight in full, with date, cause and data quality. It then adds the statutory flood zone at the point, the nearest flood defences within 1.5 km with their inspected condition grade, and the flood-warning areas within 2 km.5 km with their inspected condition grade, and the flood-warning areas within 2 km. When nothing is recorded it tells you which registers answered, so a zero is a proved zero and not a blank.

No signup. Environment Agency Historic Flood Map, Recorded Flood Outlines, Flood Map for Planning, flood-warning areas and the flood-defence asset register (with condition grades), read at the postcode's map point. England; Open Government Licence v3.0. Takes 10–30 seconds — the asset register is read one defence at a time.

This check runs on screen, no signup. The full property report is £9.99 Lite / £24.99 Complete — one report, one price, no subscription.

What "has it flooded before" actually asks

Three different things, and the registers answer only the first two. Has floodwater reached this ground? — the Environment Agency's recorded outlines answer that at the map point, with dates. Could it reach it? — the Flood Map for Planning's zones and the flood-warning areas answer that for rivers and the sea, and the defence register says what stands in the way. Did water get into this building, and did anyone claim? — only the seller and the insurance market know that, which is why the TA6 question and a quote on the address complete the check rather than duplicate it.

How the zero is proved

Most "flood history" pages print a reassuring nothing without saying where they looked. This one runs four queries and tells you the result of each: the Historic Flood Map at the point and across a 250 m box, and the Recorded Flood Outlines at the point and across the same box. A green result means both registers answered and both were empty at the point and within 250 m. If one register did not answer, the result says so and stays grey — a half-checked history is not printed as a clean one. If either register puts the point inside an outline, the result is amber and the event list shows what, when and from which source.

What the card saysWhat it meansWhat to do next
Recorded flooding at this pointThe map point lies inside at least one recorded flood extentAsk the seller on the TA6; get a flood-specific quote; ask your surveyor about flood-resilience measures and tide marks
Recorded flooding nearbyWater has reached ground within 250 m, not the pointCheck the exact address against the outline on the Environment Agency map; ask the seller and the neighbours
No recorded flooding (both registers answered)Nothing at the point or within 250 m in either registerReassuring, not conclusive: still ask the TA6 question and quote the address
A register did not answerAn outage, not a findingTry again later or search the postcode on the long-term flood-risk service

Reading the recorded events

Each event in the list carries the Environment Agency's own attributes: the event name where one exists (the named storms and the big river floods are usually named), the start date or year, whether it was river, tidal, coastal or surface-water flooding, the recorded cause, and the EA's data-quality grade for that outline. Old events are often dated to a year only. Events are de-duplicated — the same 1947 flood can be mapped by three different providers — and sorted newest first. A string of events in the same decade usually points to a known problem that a scheme has since addressed, which is exactly where the defence register earns its place.

The defence register, and why the grade matters

The Environment Agency inspects the flood-risk-management assets it maintains or regulates and records a condition grade for each on a five-point scale (very good, good, fair, poor, very poor), together with the target grade the asset is meant to hold, the body responsible for maintaining it and the last inspection date. This check lists the nearest assets within 1.5 km of the postcode point with those fields, and flags any asset graded below its target. Read it with the flood zone: a Zone 3 home behind a good-condition embankment maintained by the Environment Agency is a different proposition from a Zone 3 home behind a riparian wall in poor condition that a private owner is supposed to look after. "Maintained by" is the register's responsible party — where that is a riparian or private owner, the cost of upkeep falls on them, not the EA. The register covers assets the EA knows about; it does not cover property-level resilience measures such as flood doors or non-return valves, which a surveyor can look for.

Flood zones and warning areas, briefly

The statutory zone at the point — 1, 2 or 3 — comes from the Flood Map for Planning, modelled ignoring defences; a Zone 1 here is only ever a confirmed pair of empty answers from the Zone 3 and Zone 2 layers, never an inference from silence. Our flood zone explainer sets out what each zone means for a mortgage, insurance and resale. Flood-warning areas are the Environment Agency's own map of where it expects to issue warnings when rivers or the sea rise; being inside one is a reason to register for warnings at the address on the day you complete.

What this check does not cover

  • Groundwater flooding — a rising water table in chalk and gravel districts; reported by a commercial environmental search, not by any register read here.
  • Sewer flooding — the water company's drainage and water search (CON29DW) holds the internal-flooding register.
  • Reservoir flooding — mapped free on the Environment Agency's long-term flood-risk service.
  • Claims history — only an insurer's quote reflects it.
  • Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — Natural Resources Wales, SEPA and DfI Rivers hold their own maps; none publishes address-level history.

Before you offer

Run the postcode, then the exact address on the Environment Agency's map. Put the flooding question on the TA6 and compare the answer with the events listed here. Get a buildings-insurance quote on the address and ask whether the flood element is Flood Re-backed. If a defence stands between the house and the river, ask who maintains it and when it was last inspected — the answer is on the card. Then read the area picture on the flood risk by outcode pages and the decision guide, should I buy a house with flood risk?. For the forward-looking zone and surface-water reading, the flood risk check sits alongside this page.

Sources: Environment Agency Historic Flood Map, Recorded Flood Outlines, Flood Map for Planning, Flood Warning Areas and Asset Management (flood-defence asset) register — © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. England only. Read at the postcode's map point; a flag to check the exact address, not a property-level flood-risk assessment.

Frequently asked questions

Three sources, in this order. The Environment Agency's recorded flood outlines and historic flood map show where floodwater has reached since records began — this check reads both at the postcode point and within about 250 m. The seller must answer the flooding question on the TA6 Property Information Form, and a false answer is actionable. And an insurer's quote reflects the claims history of the address, which no public register holds. Use all three; none alone is the whole history.
The Historic Flood Map is a single combined outline of all recorded flooding from rivers, the sea and groundwater in England — one shape per place, no dates. The Recorded Flood Outlines are the individual events behind it, each with a start date, source, cause and the EA's own data-quality grade, and they also include surface-water events. The check reads both: the first for "has water ever reached here", the second for "when, and from what".
No. The registers hold the floods the Environment Agency and its predecessors mapped, which is most significant river and tidal events since the 1940s but not every local surface-water or drain flood. That is why the result names which registers answered and over what area: a zero from both registers at the point and within 250 m is a strong, honest reassurance, but it is not a guarantee, and the TA6 answer and an insurance quote are still needed.
Not necessarily. The outlines map where water reached on the ground, and they stop at kerbs, walls and changes in level. A recorded event within 250 m means water has reached the neighbourhood before and the exact address needs checking — a flag, not a verdict. Only an outline that contains the postcode point says water reached that point, and even that is the point, not every building in the postcode.
Because the flood zone is modelled as if no defence existed, and a defence only protects while it is maintained. The Environment Agency's asset register records every wall, embankment, culvert, outfall and maintained channel it knows about, with an inspected condition grade from very good to very poor, a target grade, who maintains it and when it was last inspected. A home behind a defence graded below target is a different purchase from one behind a defence graded good — the grade is what tells you whether the defence is doing its job today.
Yes — history is what insurers price on, more than the zone. A recorded event at the address, or a previous claim, raises the flood premium and excess and in bad cases leads to flood being excluded. Flood Re lets an insurer cede the flood part of a policy on a home built before 1 January 2009 to a pooled fund, which caps that part of the premium by council-tax band; homes built from 2009, most buy-to-lets and blocks of more than three flats are outside it. Get the quote on the address before you offer.
No. The Environment Agency's registers cover England. For a Welsh postcode the result links to Natural Resources Wales, for a Scottish one to SEPA's flood maps; neither publishes address-level flood history, so there the seller's answer and the Home Report (Scotland) carry more weight. The check will not print an English blank for a non-English address.
The report's Flood risk section prints the flood zone at the point with the surface-water band now and in the 2050s, every flood-warning area within 2 km and 5 km by name, the recorded events, the river-flow climate allowances and the Flood Re reading with its reasons; its Flood defences nearby section lists the assets within about 1.5 km grouped by type with condition, below-target flag, maintainer and last inspection, plus capital flood schemes within 5 km. Both are in Lite and Complete.

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