Information on Elevation Certificate for a Home

We own house in Bedford, TX and got letter last week from our mortgage company saying our home was in flood plain. We are original owners and never were required to purchase in the 20+ yrs since. There is storm channel creek behind our house that does get high water in it but even in 07 when Haltom City and FTW and other areas had real flooding in homes, we never had water come out of the creek...
Public works guy with the city made me copy of new FEMA map with our house platted showing the back of garage is in flood zone...our neighbor has line coming to his garage wall...but they own outright and received no letter from FEMA or city about rezoning. People next to us on right have second garage they build several years ago which shows flood zone into its boundaries but technically it is detached...
Some other homes in our subdivison and from what the city guy said two others in Bedford were affected specifically...but houses in my neighborhood have gone from low/moderate risk to high risk even if their specific property is not IN flood zone...if that makes sense...

I wonder why you got your letter so much sooner than we did?

We are trying to determine if it is worth it to fight the designation...you have to get survey done showing elevation/elevation certificate first to determine if you are eligible to file for revision of map and better zoning designation...
VC

FEMA revises and updates the flood maps every 10 years all over the country. It sounds like when you bought the property only a portion was in the flood plain, but not the house; therefore, no flood insurance was necessary. Now that FEMA has done their update, apparently the house is too. This type of flood insurance is different than internal water damage, say from a pipe leak, and all mortgage companies will have a mandatory requirement for it to protect their collateral. Obtaining an elevation cert is a job of a surveyor, and there are plenty of those around. You can call and get estimates for the best price. The surveyor will determine if the house is in the flood plain; the insurance company was able to tell if part of your property was in it, and that's what flagged the notice. In another 10 years, you may find yourself out of the flood plain!

I don't know anything about it, but flood insurance might be helpful if your washer or dishwasher flood the house! I've heard stories about that...

my best suggestion is to get the insurance yourself. If your mortgage co gets it, it will probably be more. Ours is only about $200 per year, but it is well worth it. We've never needed it and even got something saying we no longer had to have it, but we keep it anyway, just for our own safety. I've known people whose houses have flooded and were very glad they had it and/or very sorry they didn't . I highly recommend you do it, though.

I work for an insurance agency and it's true...you probably need a new flood cert. And it does make a difference in the premium. I haven't heard of how much it costs because I'm out of East Texas and there aren't a lot of flood areas around here. But if you don't have one and they rate you in the highest catagory...you don't even want to know what the premium would be....I've seen in the $1000's+! And for the person who mentioned the washer flooding, etc.-a lot of the better Homeowners policies cover that now...I haven't dealt with a lot of flood policies but I'm not sure that would cover the washer. I could be wrong but not sure on that.

I have. I believe our elevation cert costed around $150. We used ALS in Arlington and they were awesome. Because of the cert our flood insurance estimate went from $4000 a year (no I am NOT kidding) to $200 a year. It was definately worth every penny to have it done. Only half of our property fell in the zone as well.

Good luck!

B.