# $3000/yr flood insurance premium....---?!?!?!??!



## wberry85 (Feb 28, 2013)

I have a creek behind my house that puts me in a 100 yr flood plain. My house was build in '85, and so this year FEMA required me to get an elevation certificate on my house. My mortgage company requires it, and when my insurance company reviewed the certificate it brought my premium to $3000 a year!!!!! 

$3000 * 30 (yr) = $90,000 and my house is only worth $189k!!! That's half the price of the home for god sake. 

This smells like BS to me. Homeowners insurance is a fraction of the cost and covers way more. Anyone dealing with this and how did you get out of it?


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

Look into buying federally subsidized flood insurance. I think it exists and the FEMA people could let you know about it.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Gray Wolf said:


> Look into buying federally subsidized flood insurance. I think it exists and the FEMA people could let you know about it.


Isn't all flood insurance federally subsidized? As to the difference between flood insurance and other perils, the flood risk is spead among people in possible flood locations while fire, for instance, is a risk for everyone. 
I would love for you to take a share of the risk for the earthquakes in my area but I doubt you would find it appealing.


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## wberry85 (Feb 28, 2013)

It is insane to me that my homeowners premiums are a fraction of the cost and cover every other possible natural disaster. How are people standing for premiums this high? 50% added to the cost of my home for insurance against a creek that has NEVER flooded since records have been kept? BS!!!!


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Is there any chance of actually moving the house or raising it to a level where the flood insurance becomes reasonable or even unnecessary? If it's only a matter of being 6" to low, it may not be as complicated or expensive as you think. If it's more like 30' too low, it's a big deal.

I would not want to pay the kinds of insurance premiums you mentioned.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

So now they want to charge you $250 a month on top of your regular insurance?? That seems way too high for someplace that has never flooded. How long since you bought the property? If it is in a flood plain, that should have been disclosed to you before you bought it. If the previous owners didn't have flood insurance, find out who they insured the property with and try to get a policy with that co.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

The predictions of it being a 100-year floodplain don't necessarily mean anything as weather becomes more extreme, so even if it hasn't flooded in the past that doesn't mean it won't now. The reason it's so expensive right now, I bet, is because of the huge payouts that have had to happen over the past few years with all the bad tornadoes and superstorm Sandy and such--lots of 100-year floodplains have been disastrously flooded, and we're all subsidizing the insurance payouts with our taxes.


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## SectorSteve (Nov 29, 2003)

Have your insurance agent check with www.catcoverage.com . It's catastrophic insurance for flooding, landslide and earthquake. We just sold our house and closed on January 31st. The buyer was quoted $4700.00 for flood insurance through his State Farm agent. He contacted my insurance agent who contacted catcoverage for him, his mortgage company approved the coverage and his flood insurance premium was $585.00.
The dramatic rise in flood insurance cost is due to the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 and the fact that FEMA changed the flood plain mapping starting in 2008. My house had never flooded and was NOT in a flood plain until FEMA changed the mapping.
Steve


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2014)

A bit off topic , The Greenbriar River runs through Ronceverte WV . I lived near there for several years . A few years ago it flooded big-time . Flooded out an electric company substation . The electric company talked about building a new station on higher ground .
They finally decided it was a hundred year flood & rebuilt the existing station . It wasn't more than a couple months after they completed it they had another 100 year flood & wiped it out again .
If any of you have seen the TV show Appalachian Outlaws , the show is about ginseng diggers , Ronceverte & the surrounding area is the featured location .


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## 92utownxj (Sep 13, 2013)

Are you actually in the flood plain or are the FEMA flood maps wrong? Maybe it is and you can disregard this, but it might help someone.

On my property, when the flood plain is over layed it looks like a kid decided to draw pretty lines. Add the contour lines and I stare in disbelief, yet the FEMA flood overlay is what my bank used for my mortgage. FEMA really needs to redo all the flood maps according to actual flood elevations and contour lines. It wouldn't be that difficult with the technology available now. 

Here is what I had to do to avoid paying flood insurance on a structure that was clearly not in the flood plain. I got a certificate from the DNR stating the 100 year flood elevation. Then I had a surveyor shoot the elevations of the structures that were supposedly in the flood plain. The surveyor then did the rest for me. While the maps didn't change, all of the structures were removed from the flood plain. 

With my property it was obvious the maps were wrong since my house and pole barn are up on a hill. The flood elevation is 610 feet above sea level. The base of the structures is 625 feet above sea level. It took a few months and cost me $500 for the survey, but now I don't have to pay the extremely high flood insurance premium.


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

If the law has changed recently, this may no longer be the case, but I know that for many years part of the requirements for the basic federal flood insurance was that relevant local government entities had to have done various studies and zoning to the feds' satisfaction. Very small towns, counties, and rural areas sometimes found it simply too expensive and time consuming to meet the requirements, especially if the areas in their jurisdiction that they thought as a practical matter might flood were very limited. If the *flood insurance* is being quoted at $3K and that's separate from homeowners', too, that sounds outrageous, but it might be a quote from a company that is handling it independent of the federal program and may not really give a flip if they write such policies at all.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

I don't know if this is reaching a little too far, but...

Did you have title insurance when you bought the place? If they had no issue with the property when you bought it but suddenly there is now an issue, would that be a legitimate title insurance event?

Hey, it just came to mind. Figured I'd throw it out there.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

When we bought our property, late 80's, they were using the Army Corps of Engineers survey maps to determine the flood risk and FEMA was not in the picture. Wonder if FEMA is using those same maps or something else? 

When the big floods happened in 1993, the Corps survey work turned out to be very accurate, you might try to get ahold of their maps and see what it shows about your property.

If there really is a risk, you will want to be covered. But it shouldn't be that expensive unless there is a history of flooding or a pretty strong risk.


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## TxRPLS (Jan 27, 2014)

http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/obama-to-sign-relief-from-flood-insurance-hikes/2014/03/14/9bf2dfc4-ab4b-11e3-b8ca-197ef3568958_story.html


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## Guest (Mar 20, 2014)

Had this happen to me in 2001..I had a surveyor come out and confirm the property lines..cost was $300...contrary to what the Feds said, our home was 10 feet ABOVE the flood plain ...after we filed the correct data, the feds backed off...I believe that year, or the next, the Feds had begun to remap their flood zones..not all areas were completed..creeks move over the years..the most important piece is what is the elevation of your home..


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## vpapai (Nov 18, 2010)

We had a similar problem when we put our Florida place up for sale. Realtor said asking price was hugely dependent on the ability to get reasonably priced flood insurance. We ended up getting a surveyor to do an elevation survey for us so that we could show that the property was less of a risk, due to the height of the living room floor, the lowest point of the house. Instead of having a multi thousand dollar property, we were able to insure if for $460. The $300 we paid to the surveyor was well worth it. 

If your house is low, you may also be able to have it raised economically enough so that your policy cost is lower. The price you pay is based on your lowest living space of the house that is heated and cooled. Our house had a "Florida Room" which was lower, but since it was not heated/cooled by our central unit, it did not count as "living space" to affect our liability exposure. 

With the passage of the flood insurance amendments, this may not be such a problem as it could have been.


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

Sounds like agenda 21 at work. The powers that be want all of us living in cities, ya' know.

I would look into living in a motor home (or two) rather than pay $3K a year for flood insurance. If a flood does come, drive off for a couple of weeks, and then return. Keep your money.


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