Waterfront home owners! Flood insurance questions

[thedude]

Hey guys, I'm getting close to purchasing a house on the river outside of Pittsburgh PA. I need to get flood insurance because being that its riverfront, its in flood zone AE. I'm being told all the flood insurance has to go through FEMA, which my agent is quoting my something like $4800/year for a 1440 square foot place. The first floor is above grade and all garage/mechanical room/storage. The 2nd and 3rd floors are the living spaces.

Is there any way to get this premium down to a reasonable level? The previous owner said his was only $600/year. I had to get an elevation certificate done, which I did, and that is forcing these higher premiums.

What are my options?

Thanks.

[TxJole]

I didn't have to get it on my lake, but I know I had to have a FEMA survey done because they just changed the laws after Katrina.

[crobi2]

Yeah, if you are AE you have got to pay what FEMA and your lender wants. Maybe you might want to look at a current FEMA flood map for your area (available free on gov website) and see how deep it might get at your place.

Make sure they are not quoting for the downstairs.

The previous owner was not paying for much risk at $600/yr for 1400 sqft.

If you are buying the place with your own money, you can of course self-insure.....

[TxJole]

The way my realtor explain it to me, if you had flood coverage before the new law you got grandfathered. Then FEMA enlarged the flood zone everywhere and raised required coverage. It was so much an issue with us that if our home fell in the "new" zone we were going to walk away from the sale.

[jroyal]

I ran across then when trying to buy a lake home. The Corp of Engineers/FEMA change the maps and flood levels from time to time. These maps "estimate" the approximate flood levels on the maps. On our lake, you can have a survey performed to determine the home's actual level in relation to the dam. If you are a certain level above the dam, you can get out of paying the flood insurance. Good luck!

[TxJole]

Yet you can't get drought insurance when you have no water and pay higher taxes for a lake front home.

[GCSuper]

OK. WE just went thru this. I'll see if I can shorten the story. When we first bought our house, the actual land was owned by the BRA ( Brazos River Auth ). A House Bill, 3033 was approved allowing lease owners to purchase the land. Value was set at the 2008 appraised value. Owning the land allowed us to get a better financing rate, so we approached the bank about a re-fi. No problem until we learned that FEMA had broadened the flood zone maps. Like others have mentioned, rates for FEMA based flood insurance are astronomical. So much that if we were to continue to have to pay this rate, we would probably have to sell. It just wasn't in our budget.
Here's what you have to do. You'll have to get a surveyor to do a " Letter of Map Ammendment ". They can/should also be able to provide you with all the right documents to send to FEMA to request a full refund. There were some bluff lots that sit a 100ft above our lake that were put in the flood zone. The whole process took over six months to get our refund. Remember, your dealing with our guberment here.
Our house foundation sits approx 10 ft above normal pool level for comparisons sake. Good Luck.

[TxJole]

U must be on PK, we got out of there as quick as we could.

[GCSuper]

You're correct on the PK assumption. All lakes have their governing bodies. PK's been nothing but good for us. We now own the land we used to lease, plus, it's no longer a power plant lake, so by next year, we'll get the deed to the FERC zone, which is the waterfront setback required by BRA. The land area we used to lease was approx 3/4 AC, but since the purchase, we were deeded an additional 3/4 of an acre for no additional cost. Although I'm sure the PP appraisal district will call it very valuable. LOL We live just west of FTW, so PK is just barely an hours drive and there are never traffic issues in that area. No other lake appealed to us.Where else can I get a million $ view for 250 K ??

[TxJole]

We loved the lake but BRA drove us out. How long have u been there?

[thedude]

GCSuper: did I follow you correctly when you said you were able to get a flood map amendment only being about 10' above normal pool? Do you know what elevation around your house the flood zone AE runs to? Is your place below that AE elevation even after the map amendment?

Flood stage on my river is at an elevation of 746' which is the point where water will flow over top of the dam downstream of me. My house's bottom elevation is 755', or about 9' above flood stage (at that point, I'll have water in my 1st floor which is the garage, storage, and mechanical room). Flood zone AE encompasses and elevation up to 767', according to the FEMA maps. Water has reached the 755' and above 4 times since 1967.

Thanks for the info guys, this is really helping out!

[thedude]

Also, that is one sweet boathouse and boat you've go there!!

[TxJole]

Yep you can have FEMA do a new survey, thats what we did and they pull our home out of the danger zone.

[GCSuper]

GCSuper: did I follow you correctly when you said you were able to get a flood map amendment only being about 10' above normal pool? Do you know what elevation around your house the flood zone AE runs to? Is your place below that AE elevation even after the map amendment?

Flood stage on my river is at an elevation of 746' which is the point where water will flow over top of the dam downstream of me. My house's bottom elevation is 755', or about 9' above flood stage (at that point, I'll have water in my 1st floor which is the garage, storage, and mechanical room). Flood zone AE encompasses and elevation up to 767', according to the FEMA maps. Water has reached the 755' and above 4 times since 1967.

Thanks for the info guys, this is really helping out!

Yes, we were able to get the map ammended. I don't have all the elevations with me, I just remember that there was a 10 ft difference from the spillway and my slab. When FEMA does these remaps for new flood areas, they just throw a big blanket over every lake area and that makes individuals responsible for pulling their properties out. Good news if your a surveyor. Best advice is to call a few surveryors and see if they've done this before. Ours had all the forms and even filled them out for us to send to FEMA. I've even heard of people getting reimbursed for the cost of the survey, plus the flood policy. We had to pay the policy in full for a year to be able to close, then recieved a full refund.

[GCSuper]

Also, that is one sweet boathouse and boat you've go there!!

Thanks !