Situation: Doing due diligence on a house prior to making an offer.
Ask: What's the simplest way to determine if (how many) flood insurance claims have been filed for that home?
I understand current owners would have to disclose, more worried about previous owners and a "100 year" event.

Thank you in advance for any tips!

Only the property owner can get that information.

Quote:

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There's also an option to get this information emailed to you by requesting the flood loss data through FEMA's email. Simply send them an email through your account to request this information and they will reply back to you with the said copy of your flood loss data.
To email FEMA, simply send a request to femamapspecialist@riskmapcds.com
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Once more, it's important to note that you must be the property owner in order to request the property's data to be sent. If you are a real estate agent or a buyer, you can request the property owner to get this information for you.

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https://www.floodinsuranceguru.com/the-flood-insurance-guru-blog/how-to-find-flood-loss-history

Thank y'all

Ask the neighbors.

What are the rules wrt disclosure? Is a seller obligated to disclose all known instances of flooding? Or just flooding instances while they own the property?

If you plan on using TREC forms for your transaction, the Seller's Disclosure Notice is pretty detailed as it relates to flooding. It requires the Seller to answer several "Are you aware ....." type questions. I would also do my own due diligence as others have suggested, including having the Seller request and provide a Flood Loss History from the National Flood Insurance Program. You don't necessarily need to have all your flood-related questions answered prior to getting the property under contract, but the contract should be worded so that you can opt out of the contract under stated circumstances.

If it requires the seller to simply "be aware," wouldn't it stand to reason if the property had flooded at any point in time, it would always remain as a disclosure? In other words, wouldn't the first seller, even in a long line of transactions, to not disclose be in violation?

I'm not depending on good faith or disclosures from folks who are long gone. I want receipts (proof of claims), and thank you to the two folks who mentioned ways to get it!

jagvocate said:

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I'm not depending on good faith or disclosures from folks who are long gone. I want receipts (proof of claims), and thank you to the two folks who mentioned ways to get it!

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I'm not telling you to. I'm genuinely curious the answer to my question.

Disclosure is always only one part of due diligence. I want as much verifiable information/evidence as I can get. Preferably most not dependent on a the Seller. Going after Seller for a misrepresentations isn't fun.

Agilaw said:

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Disclosure is always only one part of due diligence. I want as much verifiable information/evidence as I can get. Preferably most not dependent on a the Seller. Going after Seller for a misrepresentations isn't fun.

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Again, I wasn't offering any advice. I asked the question because I am literally interested in the answer.

Mas89 said:

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Ask the neighbors.

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Bingo! Go find the older neighbors who have lived there for 30 years; they will know!

One interesting way that may or may not be helpful is to pull up google earth and go back in time to known floods in the area. It will at least show you if there was flood water in the area.

You can learn a lot from talking to neighbors around the property. I know of a house that had a decent inside fire. House was listed a few years after fire and current owners who owned during the fire never disclosed it but all the neighbors knew the past.