Posted on 09/19/2016 4:30:17 PM PDT by LambSlave
I found that in 2009 Douglas County Nevada tried to sue FEMA because their flood models were grossly incorrect, which resulted in many properties being incorrectly classified as requiring flood insurance that were not in flood zones. Reading around the net, it seems this is an endemic problem, and from speaking to surveyors online, they claim that 75 -85% of all these claims that they have worked are overturned-- the properties are in fact not in flood zones. Worse, the banks take advantage of this and buy insurance for the mortgage holder at outrageous rates. Both of these things happened to me, I fought it for over six months, and today I won. But I am still so incredibly pissed. It is obvious even to someone with Obama's intellect that my property is not in a flood zone, but I had to spend over $500 dollars to get it surveyed, plus buy ridiculously priced insurance during the six months it took to sort this out. This has happened to millions of people across the USA, almost all whites in rural areas, while mysteriously the real at risk muti-billion dollar seaside resort properties continue to get over. Any lawyers out there or those in a position to know if anyone is considering a nationwide class action lawsuit against FEMA? Anyway that's my rant.
Of course they want to make people who don’t live in flood zones pay for flood insurance! That way they can pad their bankroll without raising rates on low income people who live in flood zones like the entire state of Louisiana.
Pay $100 to get a Flood Elevation Certificate. Homes in Florida built after 1974 are required to be elevated so an Elevation Certificate can drop your flood premium by over 50%.
And they use the “we’ve got more time, money and lawyers” than you do, so give up because we can outlast you.
I'm sure there are many other towns (and maybe counties and maybe states) that have fought and been at least somewhat successful.
I don't know of any actual suits as in 'we have standing' -> in our town's case, we got the new rates suspended until REAL engineers could do the surveys.
I did Elev Cert, and filed a LOMA, and here it cost $600, not $100. I wasn’t even close to being in the flood elevation though, my house is on a hill, that’s why I’m pissed! I spent over a thousand dollars on surveyors and insurance to prove what a five year old could see.
This is an issue that has affected millions of people; I wish someone would simply call the tune and do a class action— actually I wish they would hang the bastards, but that will never happen. My house is so obviously NOT in a flood zone, it is outrageous, and many others in the area. Most are too poor to pay the surveying fees, or the insurance, so some were forced to sell, some borrowed to pay off their mortgage, but now they can’t sell the property. Obviously they know this.
Area’s that are six hundred feet above any river.
If the Base flood elevation is the rim of a coffee cup & if your home on a hill is located inside the cup & not above the rim, the hill doesn’t factor in except for being on a higher elevation than others.
I have spent thousands over the last few years on flood insurance I don’t need. I have a statement on my site plan with the county that says my house is above the flood plane (by about 20 feet).
Not good enough.
I did the elevation survey and started the process last year to get out of it. Unfortunately one of my files was corrupted, I fixed it right away but they never responded and I have to start all over.
Not only that, but this insurance is worthless to me. I am next to a river. If it decides to change course it would/could undermine my foundation (but never get high enough to get my feet wet). Guess what flood insurance doesn’t cover, foundation damage.
Similar pattern to Obamacare. Forced to sign up if you want a mortgage.
If your home is above the flood plane by about 20 feet your insurance is not supposed to be that expensive.
In Florida, a home built 2 feet above the base flood pays about $400 a year for $250,000 in coverage.
I had this same problem.
My house was located on a hilltop over 600 feet above a creek.
The worst floods in the history of the place never got more than 30 feet above the creeks normal level.
The last time my home site was underwater, Noah was having a sail.
Still had to buy the flood insurance.
I understand that, they accepted the LOMA, and took me out of the Special Hazard Area so I guess my house is above the base flood elevation, even as calculated by these idiots. The science here is wrong; it is like global warming; these properties have been here for 100 - 200 years and never flooded. Not one of them, EVER. I do statistics (among other things) for a living, and since (according to the FEMA rep I spoke to) they are claiming that there is a 50/50 chance of flooding during the average life of the mortgage (20 years), this is a statistical impossibility. Sample size greater than one hundred houses, and each one has rolled the dice up to twelve consecutive times (since they are all very old houses, so 12 x 20 years) with fifty/fifty chance per roll, so 1/5000 chance for one house to be so lucky. But there are a hundred. It’s bullshit. Since the eventual full rate insurance rates are 5% of the property value, someone is getting rich off this scam, believe that.
In my town's case, the argument wasn't so much about height vs med high tide or whatever, but that we're relatively sheltered from tidal surges based on the geography of the 'land' under the ocean nearby.
As bad is it is for people to have to move, ANY of the one's who have consistently voted for big government -> they got what they voted for. As for the one's who voted wisely ... they got hosed by their countrymen.
I'm sorry you got dragged into it. It's possible under a Trump administration such things as Hillary not going to jail and fake flood zones will be reviewed and acted upon.
That was cheap. Most require a surveyor and go for at least $400 in WV.
The engineers need to do a hydrologic study.
My Florida Townhome was built prior to 1974 elevation requirements so my renewal is at $1700 this year for $130,000 in coverage & max deductible. It was $1400 before that and around $800 the previous year.
I ordered an Elevation Certificate online early this afternoon.
...or:”We’re here from the government and we’re here to help you.” ;)
Exactly, you and millions of others are in the same boat from my online research. I got lucky and won, but it is entirely luck— their “Science” is arbitrary and capricious. I challenged them to show me the results of a verified and validated hydrodynamics simulation, calibrated for local topography and soil conditions using 1cm resolution data to show me how many inches of rain it would take to reach my house, and what the variance was on their estimate and how often that level of rainfall has ever occurred. Of course that would involve doing real science, not the BS mapping / extrapolation exercises they do. In the Army, we do model problems of that complexity, and as a scientist I lead the teams of scientists and engineers who do the work. An SES in FEMA needs to do prison time over this, and the senior technical scientists who approved this nonsense need to go with him. Sorry you had to go through this.
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