eTech to provide flood risk information to surveyors

Property software specialist eTech will be using JBA flood data to help its clients better understand flood risk.

This article was originally published on the Mortgage Finance Gazette website, 9^th June 2017.

It follows an increase in flooding over the last decade, meaning residential surveyors need better access to better flood data to improve decision making when valuing a property.

eTech will integrate JBA’s ‘Floodability’ data into its Survey Hub platform to indicate the likelihood of flooding occurring at individual homes across Great Britain. The Environment Agency (EA) estimates that one in six homes in England are at risk of flooding from coastal, river and surface water.

Mark Blackwell, director of eTech commented: “Lenders, surveyors and conveyancers demand greater insights into property risks and flood is high on that agenda. We are delighted to be working with JBA – the leading experts in flood.

 

“Flood ratings are categorised from very significant to low flood risk and include river, coastal and surface water flood. The ‘Floodability’ dataset is based on JBA’s flood hazard map for Great Britain, which is used by most insurance companies in the UK.

 

“A property’s propensity to flood will be used as one of several data points which we combine to create a risk score for a property as part of our growing suite of risk tools available to surveyors to improve decision making for their lender clients.”

Rob Carling, JBA risk management’s technical director, said: “We’re pleased to be assisting eTech in helping their clients better understand flooding.

 

“The increased frequency of flooding over the last decade and the dramatic increase in media coverage in recent years means that surveyors need to consider whether there is an impact on value when there is a risk of flooding to a property.”

Over the coming months eTech will roll out this additional data service through Survey Hub and new mobile risk tools. This is part of the firm’s continual investment in improving property underwriting and risk assessment for the UK mortgage and property market.

Want to know more about eTech’s solutions for surveyors? Click here or call 0333 123 1414 or email info@etech.net.