February 24th, 2010 | 
Author: Do I Need An Elevation Certificate For Flood Insurance?
Good question. Has your property been recently declared in a flood zone? If it has, you now have to pay flood insurance. Well actually that’s not 100% true. If you do not have a mortgage, then you do not have to pay flood insurance. But if you do have a mortgage, don’t worry, your mortgage company will be sure to contact you to let you know that if you do not purchase flood insurance, that they will purchase it for you. I have heard of flood insurance costing as much as several thousand dollars per year and more.
My Personal Experience with a flood zone and flood insurance costs.
I have a personal experience to share with you regarding flood insurance and purchasing a flood elevation certificate. My house was recently placed into a flood zone, since its a lake front house in Greenwood Lake, NY. The day I found out I was livid! The first thing that came to mind is how can I fight this. My insurance agent was kind enough to share her knowledge with me and informed me that some people can reduce the cost of flood insurance by paying a surveyor or engineer to do a flood elevation certificate.
What is a Flood Elevation Certificate?
A Flood Elevation Certificate is a document generated by an engineer, surveyor, or qualified person that will provide data to help properly rate properties for flood insurance. An Elevation Certificate can determine where precisely your home is located in relationship to the Base Flood Elevation. You may want to obtain a flood certificate if your property is in a flood zone, and you are considering disputing it.
What was the end result?
I had to pay a surveyor to do a flood elevation certificate of my property. I happened to be one of the luck ones who benefited form this! It determined that my house is not actually in the flood zone, but my property is. I submitted this certificate to my flood insurance agent, and she submitted it to the flood insurance company. I received a call today with great news! My flood insurance cost has just been reduced to $275 from $1300!!!!!! You can check out fema insurance prices. This is a HUGE savings on an annual basis, and as you can see I benefited from it. Each situation is different. Talk to a surveyor or engineer in your area to discuss you situation. UPDATE!! I submitted my certificate to FEMA and guess what, my house is no longer required to have flood insurance, thus completely removed and my insurance is refunded. Note: This is the always the case, but in my case, this worked our nicely!
Disputing a Flood Zone Determination
My next step is to try to dispute the fact that my house was labeled to be in a flood zone. I have not done this yet, but i will post the results after I do it.
Do You Need To Purchase Flood Insurance?
Contact us today if you are interested in flood insurance, and we will have a representative contact you shortly.
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According to the surveyor I hired in Southern California YOU DO NOT WANT TO GIVE THE ELEVATION CERTIFICATE TO YOUR INSURANCE AGENT, as they will use it against you. In my case, my house is at the right elevation to qualify for a LOMA (document from FEMA that officially removes you from their map); but in the meantime, we still have to obtain and show proof of flood insurance. Our surveyor (and now just confirmed with an engineer at our city’s public works dept.) stated that providing an elevation cert to your insurance agent will only INCREASE your quote/rate number. This is because whatever flood zone type your in (e.g. AO zone), you start at a base premium, then they use the data on the elevation cert to more accurately determine your premium, which will be some higher number, i.e. the wrong direction for your bank account! Anyway, just sharing… think twice about providing your ins agent with your elevation cert. According to my city engineer, he’s spoken to FEMA and they advise that an elevation cert is NOT required to get flood insurance.
As you can see everyone’s experience can be different. In my case, my insurance company was charging me $1300 a year. But, I had a big feeling, given I was on a lake with a dam, and form the look of the fema map, that my houses was not in fact in a flood zone, just my back yard. I was one of the lucky ones who when submitted my flood elevation certificate to my insurance company, had my insurance price dropped from $1300 to $275. So I suppose, if the flood elevation certificate is in your favor, it can save your money. Always consult with a professional before deciding what to do. This is just my experience. Thanks for posting.
There have to be some approach to prevent those natural disastor from happening…we should think ahead of each possibility, not less than we should always do what we ought to be doing…