It would appear that the house I am buying has suffered flooding in the past (1999) and drought damage (1982,1991,1993,1998)so much so there have been insurance claims revealed in the 'etat des risques naturals miniers et technologique … Although nothing since 1999. Should I be concerned over this and will it have a massive impact on insuring the house given there has been no claims since 1999? All advice very welcome
Oh yes, that would make perfect sense… Damn taken down as fish stocks were suffering apparently salmon has now returned -)
Hope it all goes fine - the bit about the dam makes sense re the flood. Praps it was the dam that was causing the drought before '99! :)
Thank you David, I have a list of questions awaiting response from the Immobilier . The property is in the indre and I did a bit of research to discover late in 1998 a damn was dismantled which may have been the reason for the flood in 1999- sudden rise in water table perhaps. But I take on all your other points. The property is not particularly close to a major river, it is in the brenne national park and a tidy property with straight walls, no signs of damp etc, etc… but I will continue to do my research.
Just to be completely useless - it'll depend on various things. For e.g re the flood and drought damage claims - have the weather conditions which prevailed at the times the claims were made happened again since? If not, I'd be concerned. If the same weather conditions have since prevailed with no claims having been made - it doesn't necessarily mean that the property didn't suffer damage, just that the owner either didn't or couldn't claim on the insurance and so covered the cost of works themselves.
Also - has anything been done to the property and/or in the area where it is to make the risk of flood or drought damage recurring less likely?
Have you checked with the seller who currently insures the house? The insurer will hopefully be willing to give you an idea of insurance costs and/or how they're impacted by the previous claims.
It may well be that all is fine but some UK insurers excluded flood risk on buildings policies for some properties seen as at high risk of flood damage q. some years back. Doesn't mean a property can't be insured, just that certain risks are excluded (bit like health cover if you have a pre existing condition).
After all that waffle - I think really you need more info from the notaire and/or the vendor.