About a quarter - 122,000 - remain in mandatory coverage zones, and 31,000 more that were outside the mandatory insurance zones will now be required to buy flood insurance if they have mortgage loans from federally regulated or insured lenders. That’s 60 percent of all parcels formerly in the zones. They’re asking, ‘What do I do?'” he said.Ībout 266,000 land parcels in Broward County were taken out of mandatory flood insurance zones. Winterrowd said he’s been swamped with clients who have called him after receiving letters from their lenders. Preliminary maps for Palm Beach County were unveiled last month, and thousands of homeowners in that county will face the same choice when FEMA finalizes those maps. The effort replaces maps in use for decades.īroward’s new maps were finalized on Aug. “It’s definitely going to be a problem,” said Rick Winterrowd, an insurance agent in Hollywood.įEMA’s remapping is part of a five-year effort to re-evaluate property owners’ flood risks nationwide using modern aerial imagery, revised elevation data, recent flood experiences and input from local engineers. That’s prompting concerns by insurance agents and flood insurance advocates that homeowners might blow off paying a $300 to $400 lump sum at renewal time and not be covered if there’s a damaging flood. So homeowners who want to continue to buy discounted lower-risk flood insurance will now have to pay for it directly to their insurance agents. What customers might not understand, and what most of the lenders’ letters are not clearly stating, is that most of the banks will no longer collect escrow payments or allow homeowners to continue rolling their flood insurance payments into their monthly mortgage payments for properties where flood insurance is no longer required.
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