Flood Insurance advice

[Lemon Thrower]

been thinking about flood insurance. not in a flood plain, but we have a finished basement and when there is a good rain water collects in the back yard. If we got more than 3 inches of rain, not sure what would happen.

i know standard homeowners excludes outside water so i called my agent to ask about flood insurance. they must not make any money from it because they were very reluctant to help me. low level rep says that even if you buy it, it won't pay off unless your neighbors have coverage and more than an acre of land is flooded (we live on a typical suburban size lot).

does that sound right?

is it worth getting?

 

[Fijimn]

I've never heard that the neighbor has to get it. The policy is through the feds. It's very inexpensive. But I don't know if it would cover simple ground water intrusion.

 

[Lemon Thrower]

I've never heard that the neighbor has to get it. The policy is through the feds. It's very inexpensive. But I don't know if it would cover simple ground water intrusion.

thanks. neighbor stuff is what my rep told me; she may be blowing smoke because she's lazy.

ground water intrustion is excluded from your homeowners, you can't add it as rider per my agent's rep, so hopefully the feds cover it.

 

[NYCNole]

May want to look into a sump pump. Most people in Northeast install in basements due to storms or melting snow.

 

[Fijimn]

thanks. neighbor stuff is what my rep told me; she may be blowing smoke because she's lazy.

ground water intrustion is excluded from your homeowners, you can't add it as rider per my agent's rep, so hopefully the feds cover it.

Yeah, it's essentially construction defect or latent defect that a standard HOA won't cover. Some the premium insurers (Chubb, FFIC, Pure) cover more...but, of course, you pay more. Looked up the coverage, a "flood," is a complete or partial inundation of 2 or more acres of land from: (there are various sources)

https://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pdfs/NFIP_Summary_of_Coverage.pdf

 

[dmm5157]

been thinking about flood insurance. not in a flood plain, but we have a finished basement and when there is a good rain water collects in the back yard. If we got more than 3 inches of rain, not sure what would happen.

i know standard homeowners excludes outside water so i called my agent to ask about flood insurance. they must not make any money from it because they were very reluctant to help me. low level rep says that even if you buy it, it won't pay off unless your neighbors have coverage and more than an acre of land is flooded (we live on a typical suburban size lot).

does that sound right?

is it worth getting?

We have a flood insurance policy on our rental house. It was a PITA to get the coverage to start with. Only got it because Wells Fargo required it after FEMA FIRM was updated and part of our property was within a flood plain.

I had to get a flood elevation certificate, which wasn't overly hard as I have a friend that's a surveyor and was able to do that for me for $50. Before I got that, they quoted me like $2,000/year, which is absurd. After I got the flood elevation cert, it went down to $200/year.

It was tough to get info about coverage. It's a complete crap shoot and depends on who you talk to. I spoke directly to some companies that handle flood polices and they were not helpful at all. Ultimately my insurance agent handled it all for us and the process has been much easier now.


I didn't feel this way before, but the whole Flood Insurance business is a crock. Heaven forbid I actually have to ever file a claim ...

 

[seminole97]

I didn't feel this way before, but the whole Flood Insurance business is a crock. Heaven forbid I actually have to ever file a claim ...

One of the things I looked at when selecting our property was the topography. Our house sits on the side of a hill, ~120ft ASL. I think Alford Arm (off Lake Lafayette, JR Alford Greenway abuts the back of our property) is at something like ~55ft ASL.

I did just spend the last 6 weeks installing some drains to stop rainwater runoff from pooling in front of my house (a bedroom and the dining room are set forward of the porch, and during a torrential downpour water would pool at the front steps about two inches until is soaked into the ground in ~30 min.) Have to finish one more drain at the back corner of my fence to feed into the open storm drain (feeds into neighborhood retention pond) on the back of my property and then no more puddles.

 

[LT4PLY]

Basically any water that runs into your house is excluded by regular insurance. Everyone should get flood... the caveat is flood insurance sucks for actual payment. Regular insurance comes in and will (generally) pay to replace what is damaged or destroyed. House burns down and you rebuild a new house. Flood insurance depreciates everything. And I mean everything. Wood floors? yeah, those get depreciated. Cabinets? yep... depreciated. It's probably the only insurance I have dealt with that doesn't make it right, it only eases the pain.

 

[Fijimn]

Basically any water that runs into your house is excluded by regular insurance. Everyone should get flood... the caveat is flood insurance sucks for actual payment. Regular insurance comes in and will (generally) pay to replace what is damaged or destroyed. House burns down and you rebuild a new house. Flood insurance depreciates everything. And I mean everything. Wood floors? yeah, those get depreciated. Cabinets? yep... depreciated. It's probably the only insurance I have dealt with that doesn't make it right, it only eases the pain.

They just pay on an actual cash value basis. A lot of cheap insurers do the same. True, HOA will not pay for damage caused by water intrusion, but if that water comes in that say....knocks over all those candles you had on the floor that were near a bunch of magazines you were saving....well

 

[Garnet66]

Looked up the coverage, a "flood," is a complete or partial inundation of 2 or more acres of land from: (there are various sources)

Yes, I noticed a while back that my flood policy says that there has to be flooding in the whole area, not just my property.

 

[noleville]

I work in the restoration industry, flood insurance isn't only for what you'd consider a flood. It's for any water that comes in your home from above. For example: A customer we had had a ruptured pipe behind his washer. It shot out through the exterior wall and came into the house in another area flooding several rooms (they were gone for a few days). Well as soon as the adjuster hear about the water leaving the home it was no longer his company, now it's FEMA... Good luck with them..

 

[bryanscho]

So much misinformation in this thread. Flood insurance is very simple for most people. Many agents dont know much about it because its usually a companion product and not a lead product for their agency. They just dont write enough of it to be experts. It all depends on your elevation certificate if you're in a special flood hazard area. If you are in a Preferred Risk Zone, it will be cheap. NFIP pays ACV for contents but doesnt cover finished walls, ceilings, etc for a basement. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. My company is one of the largest flood insurance carriers in the nation.

 

[BillWesJay]

I have flood insurance.

Got a elevation survey and my premium Is4200.

I don't have an acre of property.

 

[FSUFrank]

Definitely get it.

 

[ktnole]

Flood insurance is for a flood event only. It must be deemed a flood event.

 

[VirginiaNole]

Also, keep in mind being Flood Insurance is a federally backed program, once you get an elevation certificate completed, it should not matter which broker /company issues the insurance, the premium should be the same price, provide the broker puts the information from the certificate in correctly. That's why I tell all of my clients, I am a land surveyor, to get at least two quotes from different insurance carriers just to make sure the premium is correct for your situation.

DMM why did your friend charge you $50, he should have done it for free. I can't get my field crews out of the parking lot for $50, much less the 2-3 hours of work and the liability associated with the certificates.

By the way, we charge substantially more then that, we do roughly a 100 of these a year.

 

[dmm5157]

DMM why did your friend charge you $50, he should have done it for free. I can't get my field crews out of the parking lot for $50, much less the 2-3 hours of work and the liability associated with the certificates.

He did the field survey work for free, but to sign and seal had to be done by his boss. Boss charged me $50 for it.

 

[Lemon Thrower]

NFIP pays ACV for contents but doesnt cover finished walls, ceilings, etc for a basement.

if your HO excluded flood, but you get FEMA flood insurance, are you covered for walls, cieling, etc. or is there a gap between HO and FEMA?