Received my new Flood Insurance bill today (rating, firm)

[2Doxies]

I was told by my agent that full replacement value would be 210 even though its only valued at 150. She said that is based on the fact that if the home was to be rebuilt it would have to be according to fema standards and be on stilts. I have to look into this further....what a racket, thanks for the response Harbor

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by Harbor Hopper

If your lowest elevation is 8ft, then your BFE must be higher than that in order for your insurance to increase like that. You need to review your elevation cert and FEMA map to find out what the BFE is for your property.
Also, try to get the $210k coverage cut in half. Nobody in our area needs full replacement value insured for flood. IF (big IF) your property were to actually flood, we're talking a few inches of water perhaps, which is certainly not going to destroy the entire home.

You should be able to find find your BFE by looking up your property on the county web siteCharlotte County Property Appraiser

I agree with Harbor Hopper that the amount of insurance you are carrying is excessive. If I didn't have a mortgage I would reduce mine to either $25k or $50k

Most of my neighbors don't carry any flood insurance at all

Gary

[mr&mrssunshine]

we saved a small amount on our flood by omitting contents......went from $375ish to $325 which still isn't bad....

[SandyJet]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

Grandfathered means homes that are usually older that are currently below BFE (Base FLood Elevation), but when they were built, they weren't below BFE. FEMA allowed these to be grandfathered with lower flood insurance rates. The insurance premium is artifically lower for these grandfathered homes. These are the subsidized insurance policies you hear about.

However, grandfathering is going away. If you buy a home that is subsidized/grandfathered for the current owner, the new owner doesn't get ANY subsidy and must pay full flood insurance rate. When the home is below BFE, the difference between subsidized rate and non-subsidized rate is drastic.

grandfathering is not going away!!

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by SandyJet

grandfathering is not going away!!

I hope that you are wrong.

Why should they pay less than their neighbor who is not grandfathered in?

Gary

[Dukenyc]

Originally Posted by SandyJet

grandfathering is not going away!!

In fact, as the law is written, it is.

[MartyGras]

We'll it appears the law is about to be rewritten

The bill that is about to come out of the House of Representatives does the following.
Allow homeowners to pass on government-subsidized premiums to people who buy their homes instead of requiring purchasers to pay actuarially sound rates immediately

Give relief to people who have bought homes after the changes were enacted and therefore face sharp, immediate jumps in their premiums; they would see those increases rolled back, though they would get annual rate increases of perhaps 15 percent; aides said the rate increases hadn’t been finalized as of Thursday afternoon.

But people whose second home is in a flood zone and those whose properties have repeatedly flooded would continue to see their premiums go up by 25 percent a year until reaching a level consistent with their real risk of flooding.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the program, would retain the ability to increase premiums each year, but the increases wouldn’t be as steep as mandated under the 2012 law. The House bill calls for a [b]surcharge on each of 5.6 million policyholders to offset the cost of continued subsidies for about 1.1 million

“It would artificially-reduce premiums for a huge number of policyholders and actually create a sort of bifurcated system where some people are living under one set of rules and other people are living under another set of rules.”

This is Bull why should my full premium policy go up to subsidize people who aren't even paying as much as I am....Thank you Republicans

I guess we shouldn't be surprised as every state with a flood insurance issue is republican controlled!

All politicians suck!

Gary

[Harbor Hopper]

Originally Posted by MartyGras

This is Bull why should my full premium policy go up to subsidize people who aren't even paying as much as I am....Thank you Republicans

Just curious, how do you know you're not also subsidized? Are you paying $5,000/yr now? If not, you're probably subsidized like most of us are (or assume we are). We actually don't know for sure who is and who isn't. When I got my policy back in 2009, the Allstate agent never mentioned one word about being subsidized. Simply, the policy is $505/yr. It's not like there's a big bold heading on your policy that states "SUBSIDIZED" I never knew anything about the FEMA program until the past year when all this $hit started hitting the fan with potentially exponential increases. I am 1.5ft ABOVE the current BFE, but my house is 1970, so I have no idea if I'm paying the full rate or if I'm subsidized. Either way, an increase to $3-4,000 "just because" is not fair to the millions of us that bought the mandatory policies assuming we were paying "full price" Thankfully the Charlotte Harbor area is NOT on the map revision schedule as of now, so none of us have to worry about huge increases any time soon

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by Harbor Hopper

Just curious, how do you know you're not also subsidized? Are you paying $5,000/yr now? If not, you're probably subsidized like most of us are (or assume we are). We actually don't know for sure who is and who isn't. When I got my policy back in 2009, the Allstate agent never mentioned one word about being subsidized. Simply, the policy is $505/yr. It's not like there's a big bold heading on your policy that states "SUBSIDIZED" I never knew anything about the FEMA program until the past year when all this $hit started hitting the fan with potentially exponential increases. I am 1.5ft ABOVE the current BFE, but my house is 1970, so I have no idea if I'm paying the full rate or if I'm subsidized. Either way, an increase to $3-4,000 "just because" is not fair to the millions of us that bought the mandatory policies assuming we were paying "full price" Thankfully the Charlotte Harbor area is NOT on the map revision schedule as of now, so none of us have to worry about huge increases any time soon

It's really quite simple:

If your house was built before January 1, 1975 you are being subsidized.

Because your house is above BFE you should not see those crazy rates everyone is quoting my guess based on my own cost would be $1200 per year or less.

It's not fair to those of us who bought mandatory policy's and are paying full price while others are not.

I'm guessing that if you look at your paperwork somewhere there is info about being pre FIRM and getting a rate subsidy

Charlotte harbor is on the schedule and new maps are expected to be in place sometime between now and 2018.

Here is a presentation from the county you can look at :http://www.charlottefl.com/outreach/...esentation.pdf


Gary

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by 2Doxies

I was told by my agent that full replacement value would be 210 even though its only valued at 150. She said that is based on the fact that if the home was to be rebuilt it would have to be according to fema standards and be on stilts. I have to look into this further....what a racket, thanks for the response Harbor

I believe that you are only required to carry enough flood insurance to cover your mortgage.

Gary