Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

Re: relesate

I will be the tiebreaker. Mr. Moens has given you sound advice. It is premature to determine whether you have a cause of action before your closing papers and any other transaction papers are reviewed with an attorney. good luck.

Re: relesate

First, it is possible that the definition of a flood plain may have changed, so that you were not on a flood plain at the time you purchased the house, but are now.

Second, the court would hold that since (seemingly) you would not have had a claim - your house did not flood -, that no harm has been done.

You MIGHT have something against the realtor if your property was in a defined flood plain at the time they sold you the house. However, you would still have to show that you would not have bought the house had you known about flooding problems or would have paid less. Both you and the realtor have to do some level of Due Diligence in this matter. The court will not let you depend on what the realtor said alone. You have to do some checking on your own. Go out and personally inspect the neighborhood, which is a good idea in any case.

You might win against the realtor and get an award of $1.00, which would not cover your legal fees.

Also, you have no claim against your first mortgage company because they do not owe you any particular duty in this matter. In fact, they were taking a risk that your property would not flood because had the property flooded and there wasn't insurance, they could have suffered a loss because the property securing your loan would have had less value.

The bottom line is that you did not suffer a loss from flooding and did not have to pay premiums for several years. Had you, in fact, been flooded, then you might have something to sue over, but as you have presented the facts, you do not.

Re: relesate

Your previous lender should have obtained a flood certification. It is probable you received this at closing--take a look through your closing documents. There are some exceptions with regard to flood zones, for example, there could be a LOMA or LOMR for the property. So it is possible that the seller and the previous lender were correct, and the new lender is wrong. Or not. Either way, you have a bit of legwork to do before you will know if you can sue anyone. You should contact the attorney who represented you at closing, or if you did not have representation, now would be a good time to get an attorney.