Protect your home from flooding and recover after a flood

This guide is for UK homeowners, landlords and tenants who live near a river, the coast or low ground, have had a flood scare, or are dealing with water in the house right now. It goes far beyond basic storm preparation: you will find out every type of flood risk to your home, check your insurance will really pay, choose resilience measures that suit your house, and follow a clear sequence when water arrives and afterwards. Most of the money in flood recovery is won or lost in the first week through records, photos and what you agree to, so the recovery steps are detailed. If you are in danger now, call 999 and leave the rest until you are safe.

What is inside

• Full step-by-step method9 detailed steps with decision points
• Ready-to-use templatesHousehold flood plan (one page, fill in and keep by the door) · Email to your insurer confirming the flood claim · Flood damage and claim log
• Timed action plan8 stages from “This week” to “Reinstatement”
• Costly mistakes to avoid4 traps and what to do instead
• Complete checklist10 items to tick off
• Insider tips and fixes4 tips and 4 common problems solved

Step by step

1. Find out your real flood risk from every source

   Check the long-term flood risk for your postcode using the Environment Agency's service on GOV.UK in England, Natural Resources Wales's flood risk checker in Wales, SEPA's flood maps in Scotland, or the Department for Infrastructure's flood maps via nidirect in Northern Ireland. Look at each source separately: rivers and the sea, surface water from heavy rain, reservoirs and groundwater, because a home can be low risk from rivers but high risk from surface water. Ask neighbours and long-standing residents whether the street has flooded, and ask your council, as the lead local flood authority, whether it holds flood records or investigation reports for your area. Check your property's history too, including any flood question on the seller's property information form and any past insurance claims. If any source shows medium or high risk, or the street has flooded before, do the insurance, resilience and planning steps below now rather than after the first warning.