diff --git a/frontends/verific/verific.cc b/frontends/verific/verific.cc
index cb0368fd5..65e71876a 100644
--- a/frontends/verific/verific.cc
+++ b/frontends/verific/verific.cc
@@ -1262,7 +1262,10 @@ void VerificImporter::import_netlist(RTLIL::Design *design, Netlist *nl, std::se
 
 		if (inst->Type() == OPER_READ_PORT)
 		{
-			RTLIL::Memory *memory = module->memories.at(RTLIL::escape_id(inst->GetInput()->Name()));
+			RTLIL::Memory *memory = module->memories.at(RTLIL::escape_id(inst->GetInput()->Name()), nullptr);
+			if (!memory)
+				log_error("Memory net '%s' missing, possibly no driver, use verific -flatten.\n", inst->GetInput()->Name());
+
 			int numchunks = int(inst->OutputSize()) / memory->width;
 			int chunksbits = ceil_log2(numchunks);
 
@@ -1289,7 +1292,9 @@ void VerificImporter::import_netlist(RTLIL::Design *design, Netlist *nl, std::se
 
 		if (inst->Type() == OPER_WRITE_PORT || inst->Type() == OPER_CLOCKED_WRITE_PORT)
 		{
-			RTLIL::Memory *memory = module->memories.at(RTLIL::escape_id(inst->GetOutput()->Name()));
+			RTLIL::Memory *memory = module->memories.at(RTLIL::escape_id(inst->GetOutput()->Name()), nullptr);
+			if (!memory)
+				log_error("Memory net '%s' missing, possibly no driver, use verific -flatten.\n", inst->GetInput()->Name());
 			int numchunks = int(inst->Input2Size()) / memory->width;
 			int chunksbits = ceil_log2(numchunks);