Floods

Safehands

Last Friday, with the very heavy rain, our Dublin suburban cul-de-sac was flooded. Several houses had a couple of inches of water, including sewerage, on the ground floor. This is the second time in three years that this has happened. Dublin City Council were notified about the problem the last time but they have done nothing to upgrade the drainage system, which means that another deluge could have the same result. What can the residents do? Are the council liable? This is a serious health hazard. Can anyone advise us please?

kkelliher

Sorry to hear about this issue.

Assuming you have no insurance the only thing you can do is approach the council and local representitives to try and get this issue resolved. with the new property tax there is going to be a greater pressure on local need issues been resolved.

Safehands

kkelliher wrote: »

Sorry to hear about this issue.

Assuming you have no insurance the only thing you can do is approach the council and local representitives to try and get this issue resolved. with the new property tax there is going to be a greater pressure on local need issues been resolved.

Yea, its a rotten thing to have happened. The insurance companies may pay this time, but what happens if it reoccurs next time? Will the insurance companies want to know, I doubt it.
I would have thought that the Council are responsible for the drainage being adequate, especially after it happened before. They had two to three years to address it and they obviously haven't.

kkelliher

Safehands wrote: »

Yea, its a rotten thing to have happened. The insurance companies may pay this time, but what happens if it reoccurs next time? Will the insurance companies want to know, I doubt it.
I would have thought that the Council are responsible for the drainage being adequate, especially after it happened before. They had two to three years to address it and they obviously haven't.

Once you have insurance cover they have no choice but to deal with it. If they withdraw flood cover that's when you run into issues. There are local elections next year so its a good time to start putting pressure on your councillors for action.

Safehands

kkelliher wrote: »

Once you have insurance cover they have no choice but to deal with it. If they withdraw flood cover that's when you run into issues. There are local elections next year so its a good time to start putting pressure on your councillors for action.

Absolutely. But are the council not liable? I mean, could the owners take a case against them for not fixing a problem which they knew existed, but which they did nothing to rectify? If it was a one off then they may have an excuse, but it happened before. It is not like the houses are built on a flood plane. This is a very ordinary estate. The water came from overflowing drains, local authority drains. Some of the householders will have to pay thousands to fix it and will then have to face the prospect of not getting flood insurance again.

I agree with you that the issue will be a major one at the local elections. But until then what do they do?

kkelliher

I am not aware of any case law where a council was found liable in this regard and you may have more luck with an answer in the legal discussion forum than in here

Safehands

kkelliher wrote: »

I am not aware of any case law where a council was found liable in this regard and you may have more luck with an answer in the legal discussion forum than in here

That is a fair comment! Thanks for the advise

adamant3

we also live in a cul de sac in dublin that was flooded in October 2011 and again last month. we live in a bungalow two of the rooms to the front have concrete floors one however has foundation then a space of about 2 feet before the joists for the floor. flood water surrounded the bungalow in october 2011 we were very lucky it didnt come in through the door etc. However we noticed in the last month that the wooden floor in the room without the solid concrete floor that the floor is dipping and uneven, one part of the flooring has begun to crumble. we now think that water did get in back in 2011 through the air vent and soaked the floor and the damage is just surfacing now. can we go to the insurers at this stage?

kkelliher

adamant3 wrote: »

we also live in a cul de sac in dublin that was flooded in October 2011 and again last month. we live in a bungalow two of the rooms to the front have concrete floors one however has foundation then a space of about 2 feet before the joists for the floor. flood water surrounded the bungalow in october 2011 we were very lucky it didnt come in through the door etc. However we noticed in the last month that the wooden floor in the room without the solid concrete floor that the floor is dipping and uneven, one part of the flooring has begun to crumble. we now think that water did get in back in 2011 through the air vent and soaked the floor and the damage is just surfacing now. can we go to the insurers at this stage?

Did you make a claim at the time? Did you notify them at the time?

adamant3

No we have never made a claim. We didnt notify them at the time as we didnt realise that any damage had been done

kkelliher

adamant3 wrote: »

No we have never made a claim. We didnt notify them at the time as we didnt realise that any damage had been done

Late notification will be your main issue as most policies have a clause on this and anything that may lead to a claim needs to be notified. You can notify them now but I would not hold out the greatest of hope given the delay but what have you got to loose?

kilclon

I thought that as long as you notified them as soon 'as you became aware of the problem' that 'late notification', as indicated above, would not be a problem.

adamant3

thanks, going to read over the policy again this evening and ring them first thing monday morning. will let you know how we get on:rolleyes:

Markcheese

adamant3 wrote: »

thanks, going to read over the policy again this evening and ring them first thing monday morning. will let you know how we get on:rolleyes:

Get s claims asessor , they'll know wether you do /may have a claim or not and what the best way to proceed is ...