My Flood Insurance Doubled

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

All my neighbors’ basements flood during heavy rain, and I have a sump pump, so even though I never get a basement flood (I’m at the top of the hill, the floodees are lower) I have flood insurance. I once lived in the mojave desert and the town I lived in flooded, so I buy flood insurance wherever I live.

This year my flood insurance doubled. I don’t know if I’m paying the price for global warming but it ticks me off that the poor zoning practices and irresponsible levee management of other areas of the country are causing this.

I’m going to rant here for a moment about developers who convince city/county/state governments to allow them to build in flood plains. There’s a reason it’s called a flood plain.
Thank you for letting me get that out of my system.

2

There was a law passed that ordered FEMA to phase out the subsidies that the National Flood Insurance Program had given to insureds. Before the 2015 renewals, everyone is supposed to receive a letter from FEMA that gives you an opportunity to verify you reside in the dwelling at least 51% of the year. If you can, there is only a $25 surcharge. If you don’t reside there for at least 51% of the year, there is a $250 surcharge this year. The surcharge will continue until the premium reaches market premium.

Did you receive and return the letter? if you did, you shouldn’t have had such a high increase. Contact your agent.

3

I know it sucks but if you’re neighbor’s house flooded specifically because of irresponsible levee management, the insurance company is assuming that’ll it’ll happen to your house at some point as well.

You might be able to get an adjuster to come out and look at your house to see how much higher it is, but I doubt that’ll make a difference, the actuaries made a map and that’s that. If the city ever upgrades the levees, that might change things. You could try getting quotes from other companies**, but, again, I don’t know if that’ll make a whole lot of difference either as they probably all work off the same map, however, another company might not know what happened to your neighbor’s house and, technically, neither do you. You certainly shouldn’t be offering that up.

BTW, I assume the water came in through their walls/floors/foundation, right? If it came in through their drain, you can put in a backflow preventer* and probably get the insurance lowered again, but you’d have to decide if the cost is worth it. They cost a few grand to install since it involves tearing up your concrete basement floor.

*Also sometimes called a ‘fuck your neighbor valve’ since, for each house the sewage can’t enter, it rises higher in all the other ones. You’re essentially displacing your entire basement’s worth of sewage and it’s going to go somewhere.

**Something else to do is just to call and play the ‘what’s going on with my rates?’ game and ‘are there any discounts I can get’. From time to time I can get my rates back in check that way. Also, if you work at a smallish business and you want to get some quotes, ask the boss who they use for business insurance and call them, specifically, call their broker. Not to tag on to it, but starting out with “Hi this is ____ from _____” as soon as they recognize the business name, tell them you’re looking to get a homeowners (car, umbrella whatever) policy. Since they already have a relationship with your company, you might be able to get a better deal. Also, it’s often better to work with a broker, which is probably what your business does, and that might get you even better deals then doing it by yourself.

4

Fuck FEMA, those corrupt incompetent bastards. I got private flood insurance for 25% of the price that they charge. My mortgage holder is fine with it.

5

That’s kind of how insurance works. You put all the risk in a pool and it’s shared with everyone.

If you don’t like sharing the risk, become self-insured. Put the money you’ve been paying in flood insurance premiums into a savings account and accumulate it and only use it when you incur flood damage.

6

Thanks for this. I’ll follow up on it.

7

Unless you’re told, after 10 years of not living in a flood plain, that now you are because they’ve “changed the maps.” That’s what happened to me. And when I told them I wasn’t in a flood zone, they expected me to bear the expense of establishing that. One day I’m not in a flood zone, the next day I am. $4,000 per year in flood insurance premiums, and I can’t self-insure because it’s a federal requirement for my mortgage. (I could buy the crappy insurance, but it has a $250,000 limit, and doesn’t cover contents, or much of anything).