What you pay for flood insurance has a lot to do with the risk of flooding associated with your property. But, is it possible that you are overpaying your premium? What can you do if your policy and quote are full of technical errors? Or worse yet, your property’s flood zone is incorrectly classified?
Contact an Auditor
The first thing you need to do is contact an auditor, just like us. If you’re ready to lower your insurance premiums, you can start by reviewing your policy with your flood insurance agent.
The audit can find incorrect information regarding your house’s flood zone and construction date, as well as investigating things you can do to minimize risk and potentially reduce premiums.
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) generally charges properties in high-risk flood zones more to cover flood damage, especially if the property is poorly elevated. If you live in a flood area, your flood insurance premium has probably been steadily rising over the past few years. The NFIP is trying to make up for deficits in recent years by increasing flood insurance costs.
Request a Revision of Your Zone Designation
Did you know that your property might be eligible to be removed from the FEMA Flood Zone? Based on the information in your Elevation Certificate, we can perform a free flood zone assessment to your property to determine if you will qualify for removal. If you qualify you’ll be able to continue on to the National Flood Expert FEMA Flood Zone Removal Process.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has a process for those who wish to request a revision of their property’s high-risk flood zone designation. If FEMA then determines that your property is in fact outside of a high-risk flood zone, you can take that determination to your mortgage lender so that they can dispense with their requirement that you continue to carry flood insurance.
This evaluation also increases your home’s value. Not only would you save money from not having to pay monthly premiums, but you can even get previous year’s flood insurance payments refunded.
Private Flood Insurance
The US government’s NFIP has been the leading provider of flood insurance for the past 50 years. But now, with an estimated growth of 88% from 2016 to 2018, private flood insurance companies are offering homeowners the possibility of saving money with insurance policies up to 65% cheaper, especially those living in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA).
Private flood insurance companies can also offer some benefits that the NFIP can’t, such as faster policy approval and different flood categorizations. You can generally acquire your private flood insurance policy in 14 days, instead of the 30-day waiting period of the NFIP.
Private flood insurers usually categorize flood zones in a different way than the NFIP. Some insurers have their own flood maps and label a home as a low-risk B, C or X zone rather than an SFHA, so you may be entitled to a lower rate.
If you think your property’s flood zone might be incorrectly classified or would like more information on flood insurance, contact us today.