Homeowner’s Guide to Elevation Certificates

An Elevation Certificate is an important tool that documents your building’s elevation. If you live in a high-risk flood zone, you should provide an Elevation Certificate to your insurance agent to obtain flood insurance and ensure that your premium accurately reflects your risk. Obtaining an Elevation Certificate also can help you make decisions about rebuilding and mitigation after a disaster. Comparing Your Building’s Elevation to a Potential Flood Level • Your insurance agent will use the Elevation Certificate to compare your building’s elevation to the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). • The base flood is a flood with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. The BFE identifies how high the water is likely to rise (also called water surface elevation) in a base flood. The land area of the base flood is called the Special Flood Hazard Area, floodplain, or high-risk zone. • Flood insurance rates in a high-risk zone (a zone beginning with the letter A or V) are based on a building’s elevation above, at, or below the BFE. Elevation and Flood Insurance Rates • Generally, in high-risk zones, the higher above the BFE a building is located, the lower the insurance premium will be for that property. The Elevation Certificate provides the documentation necessary to make that determination. • In moderate- to low-risk zones (zones beginning with letters B, C, or X), rates are not based on elevation, so an Elevation Certificate may not be necessary to determine the premium. If you need more information, contact me at: www.es-insurance.com

CHANGES TO FLOOD INSURANCE RATES

The National Flood Insurance Program is changing. The Biggert- Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (BW-12) reauthorized the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and outlined reforms to make the program more sustainable, including the removal of long-standing subsidies. The first phase of rate increases (Section 100205) affects many policyholders who own homes built before the community adopted its first Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). Many of these policyholders historically have paid subsidized rates that do not reflect the property’s true risk. Follow my next blog to find out WHO PAYS SUBSIDIZED RATES?