Flood risk information should be given on all estate agents’ particulars, and on portals such as Rightmove.
The call comes today from the Association of British Insurers, which says that the information is material.
The ABI criticises agents and websites for failing to include flood risk information, despite including data on school catchment areas and what newspapers local residents read.
The ABI wants agents and property portals to use traffic-light style information for flood risks.
ABI director general Huw Evans said: “You can currently get more information about what paper your new neighbours might read than if a particular property might be at flood risk.”
He said the ABI wants to work with agents and property portals on ensuring that flood risk information is flagged up on property details.
Five of the six wettest years on record have all happened since 2000.
Here we go again – getting the vendors agent to do the job the buyers solicitor should, and in fact will, be doing. That wouldn’t be so bad but for the fact that the Environment Agency’s flood risk maps are at best a 1 in 100 year guess and at worst totally inaccurate for the main part. Seems like a plan for insurance companies to justify a big hike in premiums. What is more concerning is that I read in the national press yesterday that the scheme has the backing of our own professional body, the NAEA.
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HOLD ON!
Buyer goes to insurance website, types in postcode and door number of property they want to buy. Then types in all the other cr*p they insist on. Then press submit.
Robert is your mother’s brother!
If the property is on a flood plain the quote will be high, if not it’ll be normal.
The insurance companies all HAVE the data already – why on earth should the agent get even slightly involved.
I think that there is something useful that could be done – a website that includes lots of local data in one place like planning, building regs, fensa, gas certs, electrical certs, flood risk, drainage, broadband speed, council tax, days bins are collected, demographics, census data, local councillor, crime statistics, that kind of thing.
I’d love that.
Could you get an average member of Joe Public to pay to use it? No, probably not. But MOST of the data is freely available. So the usual adverts on the side would probably be good enough.
If you enter your local postcode onto this website it’ll tell you quite a lot of the above: http://www.molevalley.gov.uk – run by the council.
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