About Flood Zone Check
A small, independent site that answers one question: what do the official flood maps say about this postcode, and what does that mean if I want to buy, insure or live here.
Why it exists
The Environment Agency publishes its flood maps for free. They are also spread across several separate maps, each with its own legend and its own way of describing risk. Somebody about to make an offer on a house does not know that "Flood Zone 1" and "medium risk of surface water flooding" can both be true of the same street. This site puts the postcode through each of the maps and writes down the answer in plain English.
How it is funded
Two ways, both stated openly. The check is free and the pages carry advertising. The Flood Risk Report is £14.95, once, with no subscription and no upsell. We do not sell your postcode, your email address or anything else to anyone.
We also decline sales. If a check could not be completed because one of the sources did not answer, the site says so and does not offer a report. The same applies outside England, where the Environment Agency maps do not apply.
What we are careful about
- A number and the sentence next to it always come from the same query. No figure on this site is written by hand or by a language model.
- Where a map shows nothing at your point, we say so as "Flood Zone 1" or "very low risk", which is what an empty answer means in these datasets. Where a source did not respond, we say that instead and do not guess.
- Where the precision of a postcode is not good enough for the question, we say so and let you place the pin yourself.
- A low risk is a chance, not a promise. This site never tells you that a property will not flood.
- Every dataset is credited to the body that publishes it, as the Open Government Licence requires.
Who runs it
Flood Zone Check is run by Bosman ICT Services, an independent developer of public data sites. It is not affiliated with the Environment Agency, any government department or any local authority. Questions, corrections and complaints all go to the same place: the contact form. If the site is wrong about a fact that comes from the source data, tell us, and if you paid for a report we refund it.
What it is not
It is not an official flood search and it is not insurance, mortgage or legal advice. A conveyancer orders the formal searches; a surveyor looks at the building. This site tells you what the open Environment Agency maps say, so that you ask better questions before you commit. See the sources for the full list of datasets and the method for how they are queried.