Sale Agreed - Flooding Issue

dash8q400

Hi Everyone,

Need some help with this one. Went sale agreed on a property in Malahide a few weeks ago, it's currently with the solicitors by way of pre contract sales queries. As one of the queries my solicitor asked the sellers solicitor if the premises had ever been affected by flooding or if there were any issues with respect to getting insurance on the premises. Their solicitor came back by reply saying that it wasn't their policy to answer such questions and they would not be raising this query with their clients. Is this something to be worried about? Should we insist this query be answered before we proceed or are we even legally entitled to have it answered? By not answering the question are they inferring that there is an issue and they're trying to hide it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

eusap

Flood maps are public record, a quick google of the address will normally show you

Toots

Seems odd that the solicitor won’t answer that. As eusap said, you can Google the flood maps. What you can also do is ring around a few insurance companies to get quotes for home insurance on the property. If there’s been a previous issue with flooding you’ll find out fairly quickly that way.

cnocbui

I'd definitely consider finding a long established neighbouring property and knocking on the door and asking, if the flood maps don't settle the issue.

MrMusician18

Flood info.ie is your friend. Turn on coastal and fluvial maps.

There's a range of scenarios accounting for climate change, so look through them all.

JVince

Strange that a solicitor would say this.

There's no history of flooding in relation to Gaybrook Stream, but there has been encroachment of the sea wall and some roads directly next to the sea walls have been flooded with damage to some cars.

But knowing people in Malahide, I've never known them to have an issue with flooding and they'd be close to the village

dash8q400

Thanks for the input guys, the house is in Seabury and looking through floodinfo.ie it looks like it's under review. Just googling the area, it looks like there was a flood in the Malahide Estuary as recently as March of 2023 but it only came up onto the road by the estuary by the looks of it and no higher. Definitely a good idea to ring a couple of insurance companies just to see if there would be an issue with trying to get home insurance for the property. I still find it strange though that their solicitor is refusing to ask the sellers if there ever was an issue when such information can be freely enquired about online?

ec_pc

From experience, floodinfo is not your friend as the insurance companies do not use this website for flood rating. You will need to call an insurance company to determine what they rate the property as. And the bad news is that from what I could determine, all the insurance companies use the same flooding model so if one says no flood cover its practically guaranteed all insurance companies will say the same.

I don't get the value of floodinfo as everyone including the office of public works who maintain this site distances themselves from it.

Only caveat is if you get a letter from the council or corpo to say remedial flood works have been done, an insurance co might accept it.

So, my advice is call an insurance company at random. If they give you flood cover then you are laughing, it they do not offer flood cover then you won't get the mortgage as far as I know.

thamus doku

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058338374/sale-agreed-flooding-issue

Have you an engineer looking over the house? They will give a very good idea whether flooding is an issue.

solicitors don’t answer those type of queries.