Sharing my horror story. Rented a flat (with 3 flatmates) in Oxford as a student. The place was 'close' to a river, for a generous definition of the word, but,

Sharing my horror story. Rented a flat (with 3 flatmates) in Oxford as a student. The place was 'close' to a river, for a generous definition of the word, but, certainly not right next to it, or close enough to even think about flooding when we rented the house. Two months later, the river floods. Every single house in the area was equiped with sandbags which they took out, because apparently this was a very common occurence in the area. The house basement got completely flooded, like 1.5 meters of water, (and destroyed some stuff we were storing in the process). It got to the point where we were worried it would reach the electrics and short-circuit. The agency washed its hands on the matter. Fast forward a few months, the agency was arranging house viewings for the next tenants, and it happened to be flooding season, with the basement again having 1.5 metres of water. They deliberately chose a day when we said we would not be at home for their viewing, and said to the prospective tenants that they could not show them the basement because we had 'locked' it or something, "but there's nothing down there anyway". Apparently that group signed the same day.