Tag: Weather

What to Do If Your Home Floods: A Tenant’s Guide

It is quite early in the flooding season here in the South West of England although if and when a flood hits a place, it is never expected or predicted to occur. Yes on the weather forecasts they talk about chance of floods and rain but until it happens to you, you just don’t expect it at all. As yet my home or even close to my home has never been flooded from rain or rivers rising although that is not to say it could not or would not happen.

We lived on a hill in Spreyton in our first home there and although we experienced good moorland rain through autumn and winter and at other times too and although the roads leading up to the hilltop village would flood Spreyton always seemed a million miles away from flooding itself being 180 metres above sea level. One of my parents properties did once get flooded, when they lived at the bottom of a hill once, possibly while I was away at university or living in Exeter and a little river formed unexpectedly from the back door taking water quickly out to the front door, luckily not to much damage was done at the time and preventative lessons were learnt.

I feel with living so close to a river about 1 km away with the road close to me known to occasionally flood I stand a good chance of getting flooded at some time in the future myself. I live in social housing and so my rent is fair and affordable but if the worst happened and I was flooded I wanted to check as to what I should do or the practical consequences of flooding after the event. This property has never flooded from the river and so I hope it never does.

Checking the genius that is AI concerning advice and help I discovered the following:-

Immediate Steps & What to Do Next

Prioritise Safety: Ensure everyone is safe. Turn off utilities (gas, electricity) if it’s safe to do so.

Contact Emergency Services if there is an immediate danger to life.

Report to Landlord: Immediately contact housing association through their emergency reporting method (usually a 24-hour phone line). Follow up in writing.

Stay Safe: Follow official advice; don’t clean or repair until the landlord inspects.

Document Everything: Take photos and videos of the damage to the property and your belongings. Keep receipts for any unexpected expenses, such as hotel stays.

If your housing association flat floods, your key rights are for your landlord to make the property fit to live in (health and safety), provide emergency accommodation if needed, and conduct repairs within set timescales (24 hours for emergencies), with potential compensation for damage and rent relief if they delay, but you’re responsible for insuring your own belongings. 

Repairs: Must repair structural damage (walls, ceilings, plumbing) and ensure the property is safe and habitable.

Emergency Repairs: Must fix emergency hazards within 24 hours (e.g., major structural issues, unsafe electrics).

Temporary Housing: Must offer emergency accommodation if the flat is uninhabitable.

Compensation: You can claim for damage to your belongings and loss of use if they fail to act. 

Your Rights

Rent Reduction/Refund: You can ask for a rent reduction or refund for the time you can’t use your home.

Compensation: For property damage (belongings) and inconvenience due to delays.

Legal Action: Escalate to the Housing Ombudsman or consider the Small Claims Court if they refuse repairs. 

Your Responsibilities

Your Belongings: You must have your own contents insurance to cover your furniture, clothes, etc., as the landlord’s insurance only covers the building structure.

Report Promptly: Landlords are only responsible for damage once they know about it. 

Seek Advice: If your landlord does not act within the required timeframes, you can seek advice from local district council, Shelter England or Citizens Advice.

Escalate: If the issue is not resolved, you can complain to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which is a free and impartial service for social housing tenants.  

I can sadly imagine the heartache, sorrow and amount of issues there would be if a property gets flooded and hope it never actually happens but feel its best to be aware just in case it does.

Important measures people are also advised to do prior to an emergency are as follows :-

Prepare an Emergency Flood Kit 

Assemble a “grab bag” of essentials in a waterproof container and store it in a high, accessible place. Items to include are: 

Important documents: Insurance policies, passports, and medical records stored in waterproof bags.

Medications and first-aid: Any prescription medicines, a first aid kit, and essential baby or pet supplies.

Supplies: Bottled water (at least 2.5-3 litres per person per day recommended for survival), non-perishable food that doesn’t need cooking, and a manual can opener.

Electronics: A battery or wind-up torch, a portable radio for updates, spare batteries, and a power bank for charging your mobile phone.

Clothing: Warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy shoes for everyone in the household.

Cash: A small amount of cash, as ATMs and card machines may be out of use. 

Though I am not organised to do all of the above and living in a city I hope I would get some help and support sooner than in a remote area. I do aim to have my wallet, keys and phone all within reachable distance of me at all times of day.

I try to keep my mobile charged and a rucksack with my laptop and charges in it to if needing to leave in a hurry. I do have a folder with important documents kept high up in flat and sign up to emergency alerts and early flood warnings too.

Keeping warm during power cuts in storms

Devon has been battered by the elements this week. My mum lives in a new house in a village in Devon. With new build properties, there has been a move to make sure that the buildings are energy efficient and heating supplies are sustainable, homes well insulated, which are all a good things and help the planet and also should help bring mums energy costs down in the long run.

Devon also got hit by snow this week on Thursday and although there was enough snow to stop the buses running for a few hours where I live in Exeter, where mum lives the storm took out the electricity supply too.

She has an air pump at the garden which is run  by electricity where air pumps heats up hot water, that then go to under floor heating pipes under the floors downstairs and takes hot water upstairs to radiators and a water storage unit. Well the village that she lives in had this power cut and on Thursday her electric was off from 09:30am to 4pm and during this time the temperature dropped too and snow fell.

I was worried about her and unfortunately the mobile phone network also went down in the area at about the same time, for all I know also due to having no electricity supply too. When I managed to get hold of her just after 4pm she was ok but cold and the heating was able to come on as soon as the electricity came back on, but she was so cold that she had to spend much of the day in bed just to keep warm and comfortable.

So over the weekend I have been trying to research possible ways of providing electricity or other support for her during a power cut. On the weekend we also had our second name storm of the season, I was staying with my mum and at around 6 am this morning the wind was blowing and the rain was pouring down there was another brief power cut although this time the power came straight back on fortunately. It is likely there will be more storms and power cuts on the way this season too.

So I started to do some research into possibly energy or devises that could assist mum during a power cut and the first thing I started looking into was the possibly of what they call a power station its a kind of rechargeable large battery, that people take on holiday when they go camping. I though wouldn’t it be great if maybe it could power a kettle and a heater, while the electric is off in the house that would be an awesome comfort to my mum and the only worry then would be where to plug it in and how many cups of tea she could make and how long it could heat a room for.

But from what little research I have done so far it take a huge amount of electricity to heat up a kettle let alone an electric heater, which would use a huge amount of electricity that a simply battery powered station simply could not provide. If lucky you might be able to heat up a small camping kettle a few times a battery charge, whilst spending something like £500 or more on a battery power station powerful enough to be able to heat the kettle and not much else. I don’t think the technology of kettles heating up water has changed much in over 50 or more as there has not been seen to be a need for that kind of invention we just switch them on at the mains and they work.

My Dad also sensible suggested a thermos flask for her to keep hot water in, for what every hot drink she might want to make use of it for. You can get ones that are 500ml or 1000ml in size made by thermos that will keep water heated for potentially up to 24 hours. There are minor problems with doing this though. To provide hot water during a power cut firstly, you don’t know when the power cut is going to happen so you would need to fill it with hot water before any big storm is forecast, just in case. Secondly if you accidently forget to fill it up or don’t fill it up before the electric goes off its no use to you whatsoever.

Price wise though it’s much more realistic to by a thermos flask for £25 and make good use of it rather than spend £500 or more on a battery power station that is not powerful enough to heat up your home kettle. So it looks like Santa will be getting mum a thermos flask for Christmas and as for the electric battery power station although it sounds like a great idea sadly it’s just not practical or powerful enough for the budget that we have.

It feels like better minds than mine will need to tackle these issues head on as if we are planning to have properties more dependant on just electric for there power needs no more gas central heating systems or wood burners or oil heating systems in home then homes in communities which are vulnerable to the elements and power cuts when storms take place will also have to have some sort of back up system that can continue to supply electricity while the main power is off during winter months.

Were nowhere near investing in a solar panel roof for to be covered in snow or for the sky to be covered in clouds and she doesn’t have the land to place a working wind powered generator onto. If the batteries for home power stations could improve or if home electrical products became less power hungry then that is certainly an investment for the future. But for now I think we will stick to a thermos flask.

Sting – Soul Cake