Property Flood Resilience Grant
To be eligible, properties and business must have been severely damaged by flooding on the following dates:
- between 7 and 18 November 2019 in the North East Derbyshire, Derbyshire Dales, Amber Valley, Chesterfield or South Derbyshire districts
- between 8 and 9 February 2020 (Storm Ciara) and between 15 and 16 February 2020 (Storm Dennis) in the Erewash district
It offers flood-hit homes and businesses up to £5,000 (including VAT) to make changes to properties to reduce the flood risk to them in the future and make them more resilient. The money is to fund the additional cost, over the costs of a standard property repair, using materials which are more resistant and resilient to damage from flooding. For example, it might offer help to move electrical sockets from the bottom of the wall to higher up the wall, or provide flood doors to reduce the risk of water entering the property.
The cost of flood resilience works are additional to the costs of standard property reinstatement or repair works, which are normally covered by insurance.
Property owners will need to consider the nature of the flood risk and the whole property. Just fitting a flood door will not stop water entering through the walls or the floor. A survey is required to determine what works will be effective at your property. The surveyor will also have to carry out an inspection of the work once it has been completed to make sure it meets the required standards.
You'll need to send us a copy of the survey if you've already had one done, and any quotes you've received for the property flood resilience work.
We can arrange a survey and a contractor to carry out the works for you.
This offer is open until 28 February 2021.
All the work has to be completed and invoices submitted by 30 November 2021 for the November 2019 storm event and by 31 May 2022 for the February 2020 storm event. The timescales are based on the scheme end date which is set by Defra.
What we need from you
You need to provide details about you and your affected property, the impact of the flooding and if you've had a survey or quote for any resilience measures.
For successful applications, up to £500 is available (as part of the £5,000 grant) to fund the cost of an independent pre-installation survey (to develop the project plan) and post completion inspection of the completed work, by a suitably qualified independent surveyor.
What you can expect from us
Once you've submitted an application, we'll determine if you're eligible for the grant payment and clearly notify you of the decision. Payment will be made following completion of the works and a post-installation survey to ensure work meets the required standard.
We may need to contact you if further information is required.
Once you've completed and submitted the application, a member of the flood team will review the information and confirm receipt.
We'll contact you as soon as we can. However, please bear with us as there were around 400 properties affected by both the November 2019 and February 2020 floods, so many people may require our support.
Work the grant covers
Some examples of property flood measures include air brick covers, self-closing air bricks, water resistant plaster and replacement of suspended timber floors with solid concrete. Other measures may include something that protects the whole street or clusters of properties in an area.
Only work identified by a suitably qualified surveyor as appropriate for your property can be paid for from the grant, if your application is successful.
Who can apply
Only the property owner can apply for the grant.
To be eligible, your property must have been severely damaged by flooding between:
- 7 November and 18 November 2019 (Derbyshire Dales, Amber Valley, Chesterfield, North East Derbyshire or South Derbyshire districts)
- 8 and 9 February 2020 (Erewash district)
- 15 and 16 February 2020 (Erewash district)
The grant is only available to people where the habitable living or business areas of their properties have been damaged by floodwater entering the property, where drying out or repairs to the fabric of the building have been necessary.
The owners of the following premises are eligible for the scheme:
- residential properties (including accommodation such as static caravans where this is the primary residence, defined as a location registered on electoral role) where habitable internal areas of the premise have been damaged by flooding
- business (including social enterprise) and charitable organisation properties where internal areas of the premises which are critical to the daily operations (not storage sheds or warehouses) have been damaged.
The following buildings are not eligible for the scheme:
- garages
- outhouses and storage areas
- second homes
- empty homes
- basements or cellars not used as part of the habitable or business area of a property
If your property wasn't flooded between the dates stated you're not eligible. In the current guidance issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), you would not qualify as an individual case. However, your property could be considered as part of a community scheme. We'll be writing to properties that could potentially benefit through a community scheme and this may include your property.
The grant is intended only to fund measures which improve the property's resilience or resistance to flooding, over and above repairs that would normally be covered by insurance. Your insurance company can apply for the grant on your behalf, with your permission. And you can use their surveyors and contractors if they're suitably qualified.
If your property hasn't dried out yet, please still apply for the grant. A suitable date for starting work will be agreed with a surveyor.
How to apply
We've tried to make the application process as easy as possible and there's no cost for completing the application.
Please complete the form in as much detail as possible. You'll need to provide details about you (for example, contact details) and your affected property (for example, the property address, if you've had a survey or quote done for resilience measures).
Apply for a flood resilience grant
Please send any additional evidence required (like pictures, surveys, quotes received and invoices for work already done) to us, email: derbyshire.floods@derbyshire.gov.uk or post to:
Alex Back
Derbyshire County Council
County Hall
Matlock
DE4 3AG
After you've applied
What happens after you've applied depends on a few factors. We've outlined some examples:
Council-managed:
- no survey, quote or contractor has been arranged and you'd rather not organise it yourself
- apply online
- your application is assessed
- if the application is approved, you'll be notified and asked to complete and sign an agreement and return it to us (contact details will be made available)
- a surveyor and contractor will be appointed by us
- work can then be completed
- a post-completion inspection will be carried out by us to ensure work has been done to an acceptable standard
- if the work is satisfactory, payment will be made directly to the applicant or the contractor
Self-managed:
- you (or your insurance company) have arranged for a property flood resilience survey to be carried out at your property by a suitably qualified surveyor (a member of RICS)
- apply online (you'll be required to include surveys and quotes for works)
- application assessed
- if the application is approved, you'll be notified and asked to complete and sign an agreement and return it to us (contact details will be made available)
- you can then appoint a suitably qualified contractor on the basis of quotes received and approved in the application - contractors must be independent from the surveyor you have used
- work can then be completed
- following completion of the work, you'll need to arrange for a post-completion inspection to be done by the surveyor to ensure work has been done to an acceptable standard
- the post-completion inspection report and invoice for work carried out need to be sent to us
- we may carry out spot checks on works
- payment will be made directly to the contractor or insurance company
Private tenants:
- your property owner (landlord) should apply as property owner
Resilience measures required
A flood resilience survey will tell you what resilience measures are appropriate for your property.
For eligible properties, up to £500 (including VAT) is available as part of the grant to fund the cost of an independent pre-installation survey and post completion inspection of the completed work by a suitably qualified independent surveyor.
If you haven't already had a survey, we can organise for the survey to be done for you. Up to £500 towards the survey cost can be covered by the grant. If the survey cost is higher you'll need to pay the difference. Once you've submitted an application, we'll determine if you're eligible for the grant payment and clearly notify you of the decision. Payment will be made following completion of the works and receipt of a post-completion inspection report stating that the work meets the required standard.
Paying for the survey
If you choose to self-manage your application and appoint a suitably qualified surveyor, you need to be aware of their payment terms. The surveyor may be prepared to submit their invoice to us for payment after the works have been signed off as complete or they may require payment from you sooner. If you're eligible for the grant, up to £500 (including VAT) can be used from the grant towards the pre-installation survey and post-completion inspection. This will reduce the balance of the £5,000 (including VAT) that is available for works. The surveyor needs to be independent of the contractor - the survey and works need to be done by different companies.
If the post completion survey (or checks undertaken by us) identify that work has not been completed to the required standard, the work will need to be rectified in order to qualify for the grant funding. The cost of further surveys to demonstrate that work meets the required standard will need to be met by the property owner if the original £500 (including VAT) has been exhausted.
Or you can apply for the scheme and choose the option for us to manage the pre and post installation surveys for you. We'll then recover up to £500 in survey costs from the grant money for your property.
If you've already had a survey done
If you've already had a survey done, you can apply for a grant, but the quality and acceptability of the survey will be assessed as part of the application assessment process. The survey needs to specifically set out property flood resilience measures and needs to be completed by a suitably qualified surveyor. If the survey you had is not to the required standard, you'll need to have a second survey done to the required standard (we can arrange this for you), which can be funded from the PFR grant. In this case, the cost for any initial surveys that don't meet the standard will not be recoverable from the PFR grant and will be at a cost to the property owner. If you haven't had a survey done and you want us to arrange a suitable survey for you, please indicate this when completing your application form.
When to start to buy and install the flood measures
Please do not start the work before approval of your application. You'll receive formal notification of the application approval via either letter or email.
If you've already installed resilience or resistance measures before the grant scheme was available, a retrospective application can be made where you'll need to demonstrate that value for money was achieved. This can be through obtaining multiple quotes, engaging an accredited surveyor and contractor, using high quality materials.
Payment of the grant for this retrospective work is dependent on an approved application.
If your application is not approved, you'll be notified but you won't be able to recover any costs incurred. We're not liable for any expenditure prior to the approval of a grant application and receipt of a completed agreement that will be issued to the property owner to sign once the application has been approved.
Work quoted is above £5,000
When you get quotes for works from contractors, we can check that the quote is within the acceptable price bands, and will not approve the grant if value for money is not properly demonstrated. If the works are above £5,000 the property owner will need to separate out the works for which they are applying to be covered by the grant, as the grant will not exceed £5,000 including VAT.
Property flood resilience case studies
An overview of various measures taken by domestic and commercial properties to improve the flood resilience of their premises is attached to this page.
You can also find further information on flood resilience and resistance measures.