Flood Insurance
 

Greetings!

I am a new poster but have been a lurker for years here...

I live in Alton and am blessed to have some of the best neighbors you could hope for - just great people.

Two of my neighbors have come to me recently to ask if we had recently received notice of needing flood insurance. Both neighbors showed me the papers they had received from their mortgage company. Both had 45 days to dispute the issue. I found the coincidence of this interesting.

We bought our house in 2001. Three weeks before closing we were told we needed flood insurance. We disputed it and had two more assessments done. It was found that we were NOT in a flood zone. We have the paper work to prove it. I have made copies of our certificate for our neighbors and encouraged them to dispute the findings of their mortgage company. I also confirmed that the maps that are being used now were the same that were used in 2001 (the maps are from May of 1988). Both neighbors are on fixed or limited incomes - I hate to see them paying needlessly for this.

I should add that those of us in this area are in the zone that was hit when the dam broke here in Alton. That dam has not been rebuilt. Also, this should not have effected the FEMA map, as I understand it.

I am wondering if this is common around the lake or just specific to my area of Alton.

Thanks for your input on this.

Build an Ark
 

This is just my opinion. It may be a new bank requirement unrelated to flood zones. The Keene area was declared a FEMA disaster area last year due to flooding and much of that flooding occurred in areas that weren’t flood zones and many were not insured for the damage.
Banks aren’t interested in owning your property; they want interest income on your mortgagee. It may follow that as a result of what happened in other parts of the state (not to mention New Orleans) that flood coverage is now being required.
I agree completely that it can be expensive to insure, but also know that it is expensive to have a house float away with no insurance on it and ending up with no house and still have to pay the mortgage

I was under the impression that flood insurance was a good inexpensive option. Whats the ball park cost for it?

check this out
 

here's a site for a quick quote, depending on your zone.

http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart...94D6C44F3EA076

:eek:

Thanks UTS.