Harris County - Important considerations if your home flooded and you need to renovate

[EasilyAmused]

You don't need a permit from the city to replace floors,cabinets, Sheetrock. I haven't heard of any houses swept away by the flooding/Major structural damage in Meyerland, as this seems to be the area of focus in this thread.

Permits are for structural, electrical, plumbing, pool, HVAC. Not cosmetic/surface change. I could be wrong, but In the past you haven't needed a plumbing permit to change out a sink and faucet, and I doubt you need one now. Nothing has moved.granted you will probably need to do some electrical work if you had more than a few inches in your house.

Insurance on older homes in that area is going to get ridiculous. Wasn't it already bad after Allison? This will push more homes on the market than Sheetrock damage imho. Even so, some new homes, with higher foundations, flooded.

[marksmu]

Originally Posted by WRM20

How is it an unconstitutional taking to deny a building permit for a structure that will not meet current code and is substantially damaged? Nothing was taken for public use, the owner still has the property, and can rebuild under the applicable rules governing elevation above flood level. Would it be a taking to refuse to allow replacement of knob and tube wiring with new knob and tube, or an ungrounded system that doesn't meet current code? Was it a taking when a friends house had to be completely rewired and replumbed to meet current codes after a fire?

The new code requires that the new structure be rebuilt to current flood elevations, this requires that the finished elevation not be inside the floodway...99% of the homes are concrete slab houses many of those homes are more than 12-15" below the base flood elevation today. Requiring that they rebuild up to current elevation codes is the exact same as saying that they tear down the property and start over. It is not feasible to remodel a home out of the flood way if it sat on a slab.

If only 50% of the house is damaged, insurance is only going to pay you to repair/replace 50% of the cost. What you are left with then is that the government has taken the value of the remaining 50% of the damaged structure and reduced it to zero and has not compensated you for the loss of 50% of your home.

A valid point was made that there is no requirement that insurance agree to re-insure your property after they have paid your claim AND if you have a mortgage, your bank may call the note - but you are not required to have insurance or a mortgage so those are very different animals.

Its also worth noting that there are insurance policies that will compensate an owner for the cost of bringing a damaged structure up to existing codes/requirements when government institutes changes like this....its not a standard coverage and most home owners do not have this coverage....I am not talking about plumbing or electrical changes either - its a policy that would cover things like this, or zoning changes, etc.

[testmo]

What is this going to do to home owners in the area in the 100 yr flood plane whose homes have never flooded or taken water damage? Im sure my insurance is going to go crazy and match someone's whose home has flooded two or three times

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by testmo

What is this going to do to home owners in the area in the 100 yr flood plane whose homes have never flooded or taken water damage? Im sure my insurance is going to go crazy and match someone's whose home has flooded two or three times

If you say that because you assume that your rates will probably go up, I would agree with that assumption. The insurance companies constantly spread risk among the entire pool of their policy holders, and it is not unusual for people who have never made a claim to see their rates increase and sometimes, get dropped altogether.

Meanwhile, insurance companies go out and pay for things that are completely not necessary. About a year ago, there were a couple of major hail storms here in Denver, and I would say hundreds of homeowners in my neighborhood alone got new roofs. Many of those people had no leaks or substantive damage, but they got new roofs nonetheless. I don't know anyone who had an estimate done that was turned down by their insurance company, or who declined their new "free" roof......

[texas7]

Some homes flood that are outside the 100 and 500 year flood plain.