A Flood Risk assessment is an assessment to identify the level of flood risk to your development from near by water sources and provides a  detailed plan to assess and mitigate these identified risks.

If you  are carrying out a development , including a minor development, with in an area listed as a flood zone then you may need to complete a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) as part of your planning submission, with out it, your submission may be rejected.  Your Flood Risk Assessments (FRA) may also require a sustainable drainage Strategy (SuDS) if it effects drainage on or around the site being developed.  Click here to ask one of our Flood Risk consultants if your development is within a flood zone.

BGS Environmental work with their clients to check their development against the Environment Agency flood planning maps, proximity to rivers and flood defences, confirm its vulnerability classification and compile this information into a detailed Flood Risk Assessment to be submitted as part of the planning application ensuring their clients responsibility to asses the flood risk, propose measures to mitigate it and demonstrate that any residual risks can be safely managed, is met.

The General Binding Rules is a set of rules, produced by The Environment Agency, that came into effect in Jan 2015, and revised in 2020. These rules are applicable to all property owners of small sewage discharges and set out rules those discharges must adhere to in order to limit pollution of groundwater and surface water.

If you're selling or buying a property with an off mains drainage system then the seller and buyer must ensure that drainage system meets the General Binding rules, a legal binding document set out by The Environment Agency with came into effect in 2015 and revised in Jan 2020.  There is a legal obligation to ensure any non compliancy issue are resolved either before or at the point of sale. Mortgage companies will require a compliancy check in order to lend on a property, If a cash buyer chooses not to have a compliancy report commissioned, then they place them selves at great financial risk and face potential repair bills that can be in the tens of thousands of pounds, should they find the property has a non compliant drainage system.   Contact our team to book in a compliance survey.

There is a legal obligation to address non compliancy issues, no later than at the point of sale. Non-Compliancy issues are one of the most common property defects that results in the collapse of the sale and so homeowners are encouraged to have their drainage systems assessed and repaired, where required, well before the point of sale to avoid disruption to the house sale/purchase. If the compliancy issue is identified late in the sale process, then In some cases the seller and buyer will make arrangements to have to the compliancy issues rectified after the property is exchanged. Solicitors may hold a bond or sum aside which can be used for post exchange upgrades.  Contact us to discuss your non-compliancy issue to see if it can be resolved under the permit scheme

If your private sewage system pollutes ground or surface water or the discharge does not meet the rules set out with in The General Binding Rules and the building regulations in force at the time, then you may need a permit to discharge issued by the Environment agency. This permit is legal approval for your discharge to take remain in place and removes you from any risk of legal action or directions from the environment agency. The permit may come with specific on going conditions such as maintenance and sampling.

The Environment agency has a large waiting time to issue new and revised permits. Once submitted the application process takes several months and the applicant has only 5 days to respond and provide additional information if and when the Environment Agency request it. If the applicant does not respond with the correct information in this timeframe then the application is refused and 20% of the application fee is kept. It is very important to have the correct information available when applying to avoid delays and cost. BGS Environmental has extensive experience with permit submissions ensuring a successful submission, first time.

An Environmental Permit can cover many different discharge types and compliancy issues, for example,

• Discharge volumes above those specified to water courses or to ground
• Discharges into Wells
• Discharges to a single point or soakaway 
• Discharges to dry ditches
• Discharges on to land
• Discharges to ponds
• Discharges from bespoke built treatment systems or conversions