Flood Zone Correction (877) 356-6398

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FZC’s Portfolio Review Service (PRS) provides a foundation of accurate flood zone data that a client may leverage for the remaining years of FEMA’s Map Modernization Program. PRS enables proper allocation of your current flood insurance budget and helps you accurately plan for the future. PRS is a service responsive to client demand to prevent two very specific problems:

1. Unexpected and uninsured flood losses. Historically, clients have relied solely upon standard flood zone determinations from lenders, insurance brokers and insurance carriers to identify buildings located in a SFHA where the client needs to place an NFIP and/or Excess flood policy. All too often, the standard determination fails to identify all of the client’s SFHA buildings, which result in unexpected and uninsured flood losses. We’ve heard many horror stories of six and seven figure losses due to these errors.
2. Finding out about FEMA map changes too late. Typically, clients find out about new FEMA flood maps after a new map takes effect by receiving a letter from the lender indicating the buildings are now in the flood zone and flood insurance is required going forward. When you find out after the map takes effect, and you buy flood insurance based on the new SFHA zone and rate, you typically pay much more for flood insurance than you would have paid if you purchased the policies before the new map took effect. Finding out too late may result in premiums that are up to ten times as much as the premiums would be if you find out before the new map takes effect.

While some clients may use PRS for all properties in a portfolio or select locations, most often, clients use the service to evaluate all properties currently not designated in a SFHA because those are properties without NFIP and/or Excess flood policies where the uninsured loss would occur.

PRS is distinctively different than, and superior to, a standard flood zone determination performed by a lender, insurance broker or insurance carrier. The standard flood zone determination shows the flood zone for a particular street address based solely on the geographic location of the address on a flood map according to an automated system. While these automated systems are time and cost effective for large property schedules, they have limitations based upon the quality of the base maps, map overlay procedures, search algorithms and frequency with which they update street addresses and incorporate FEMA map changes. These limitations often produce conflicting results between two flood zone determinations of the same street address. If you don’t have a street address for a building, these automated systems cannot provide a flood zone determination.

FZC’s experienced surveying and mapping professionals perform PRS manually and adhere to a rigorous quality control program to ensure that all data is accurate. The process collects and correlates more data than a standard flood zone determination process to provide the following deliverables:

1. Correct flood zone classification for every building on every property based on FEMA’s current effective Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), regardless of whether or not a street address exists.
2. Identification of preliminary flood maps that have been issued by FEMA for public review and comment, which are expected to replace the current FIRM. FZC will provide preliminary map information, including the correct flood zone classification for every building based on the preliminary map. This enables you to determine in advance whether the new flood map will place your building in a SFHA for the first time, remove your building from a SFHA or not change the current status. If a preliminary map is scheduled during the remaining years of FEMA’s Map Modernization Program, but has not yet been issued, PRS will identify the proposed timing of the issuance of the preliminary map and alert the client accordingly of the new map’s release well before it became effective. This typically allows the client to buy coverage at the lower premium before the map changes, instead of finding out after the new map takes effect and the property owner is forced to pay at a higher rate.
3. Identification of levee systems that are in close proximity to the property, which may create substantial residual risk of loss since many levee systems have not been adequately maintained and most areas protected by levee systems are designated as low-risk flood zone classifications. Experts predict that many levee systems will be decertified in the next year, which will result in these low-risk zones turning into high-risk zones (SFHA) with mandatory purchase requirements.

To obtain a free flood risk analysis or to learn more about our Flood Zone Correction Service, call (877) 356-6396 today.

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