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About Flood Certification
As a homeowner, you must have an adequate amount of coverage to protect your home from any damages such as fire, hurricanes, floods, etc.
To cover such damages, you would need homeowner’s insurance and you would be paying an annual premium for it.
The type of home insurance required to protect your home may also depend on the physical location of your property.
One such component in home insurance is flood coverage. And to determine if it is required for your property, a flood certification is required.
In this post, we will understand what is flood certification in detail.
What Is A Flood Certification?
Flood certification is a process used to determine whether the property falls under a flood zone that is published by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
If you are getting a mortgage on the property, the lender would want to know if the property falls under a flood zone and would ask the borrower to purchase the home insurance that covers the flood damages as well.
To determine whether the property falls under the flood zone, the lender will order the flood certification and will charge the flood certification fee to the buyer.
Once the certification is done they will receive a flood elevation certificate.
What Is A Flood Certificate?
A flood certificate, also known as a flood elevation certificate, is a document that is produced by a qualified surveyor or an engineer on a specific property. This certificate includes the following:
- Elevation of residential or commercial real estate property according to the essential flood elevation required for the area (BFE);
- Type of building
- Location of the house or real estate property on the flood map.
- Additional information may help insurers to calculate the correct premium for a particular home.
The flood elevation certificate measures the difference between your home’s elevation and the default flood elevation for the area where your home is located.
Insurance companies use this information to determine the likelihood that your home will flood and select the appropriate premium for a given risk factor.
Flood certificates are required for all dwellings that fall within the risk area of the Local Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). The code for flood risk areas on the flood map are mentioned below:
- AR/AO
- V (with BFE)
- A1-A30
- AR/AE
- VE
- AR/AH
- AE
- AR V1-V30
- A (with BFE)
- AR/A
- AH
- AR/A1-A30
If your property falls into one of the above-mentioned categories, you must have flood insurance and you will need a flood certificate to obtain insurance.
In many cases, if your home was built before FIRM was made in your area, you may not need an elevation certificate to see if flood insurance will reduce your costs. You can save money with a flood certificate.
If your home is in a medium or low-risk flood zone, you usually don’t need a flood certificate to get flood insurance.
What Is The Cost Of Getting A Flood Certification?
As with most insurance products, the cost of a flood certificate varies widely depending on several parameters. The size, location, and structure of the building will affect the cost of the inspection.
For example, obtaining a flood certificate for a large commercial building is usually more expensive than for a single-family home.
A typical number you can find online for the national average cost of getting a flood certificate is $600, but it ranges from $200 to $2,000.
Certain features of a home also affect the cost of getting a flood elevation certificate. Elevators, basements, garages, or built-in height changes can increase the cost of routine inspections by a certain margin.
How To Obtain A Flood Certificate?
The first step to obtaining a flood elevation certificate is to contact your local government to see if your property has elevation information or an existing elevation certificate.
If so, in most cases you will be able to use the same certificate and not pay for a new one. If you do not have a valid certificate, you will have to pay to get a new one.
Find a state-licensed engineer, surveyor, or architect in your area to help you obtain a flood elevation certificate.
Conclusion
If you are buying a new property in cash, you may need to contact a certified surveyor to complete the flood certification for your home.
If you are getting a mortgage, your lender and the insurance company will order the same from the government portals.
If you want to check whether your property falls under a flood zone, you can visit the FEMA website.
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