I had a conversation just this morning as I was helping a client bound flood insurance coverage for a duplex he was purchasing. He said, I simply cannot believe how much more reasonably priced your policies are vs the NFIP. It’s a common thing we hear at Save Flood Insurance Agency Inc – and it’s not without reason to ask is cheap flood insurance legitimate? Why is it so much less expensive than the other quotes I received?
How do you provide Cheap Flood Insurance?
The private flood insurance carriers that I write through here at Save Flood utilize cutting edge technology, and the result of the use of these technologies is cheap flood insurance for qualifying properties. An unfortunate caveat to this is that not every property will be eligible for every private flood insurance program – they all have somewhat different underwriting guidelines and will sometimes decline properties that are deemed to be too high of a risk to accept. For example, it would be very difficult to acquire cheap flood insurance for a property that sits on piers or is literally partially in the water, such as some beach houses are and other properties that would be in the “V” (standing for velocity) flooding zones. These are generally the first row of houses that stand on a beach, and there are many variations but generally homes like this are at a very great risk of flooding during a tropical storm or hurricane.
However, we have a much greater opportunity to be able to provide cheap flood insurance for many people whos properties or potential properties reside in one of the “A” zones – Most homes that are in a Special Flood Hazard Area zone are going to reside in some type of A zone. Most commonly these are AE, AH, AO, AR and A99 – these codes help differentiate.
Definitions courtesy of floodmaps.com
Zone A – An area inundated by 1% annual chance flooding, for which no BFEs have been determined.
Zone AE – An area inundated by 1% annual chance flooding, for which BFEs have been
determined.
Zone AH – An area inundated by 1% annual chance flooding (usually an area of ponding), for which BFEs have been determined; flood depths range from 1 to 3 feet.
Zone AO – An area inundated by 1% annual chance flooding (usually sheet flow on sloping terrain), for which average depths have been determined; flood depths range from
1 to 3 feet.
Zone AR – An area inundated by flooding, for which BFEs or average depths have been
determined. This is an area that was previously, and will again, be protected fromthe 1% annual chance flood by a Federal flood protection system whose
restoration is Federally funded and underway
Most commonly we see homes that are in an AE zone. Using the mapping technology that the private carriers have in their arsenal allows us to map the risk and elevations of each property without resorting to an old fashioned elevation certificate, which is a time and money consuming process to obtain (to get an elevation certificate you must hire a surveyor, costing you $300-$600 out of pocket). While we may not be able to insure every type of property that is in a flood zone, it is certainly worth reaching out to get a flood insurance quote online to see if your property qualifies. We often times save our clients thousands of dollars in premiums vs what they would have paid with an NFIP policy alongside the time and money saved from not having to purchase an elevation certificate.
As far as our policies being “legit”, they are underwritten by certain underwriters at Lloyds of London, which happens to be the world’s largest and oldest insurance name with a history spanning 300 years and multiple continents. Our Lloyds of London Flood insurance policies oftentimes have better and more extensive coverage than what you can acquire through the NFIP and FEMA.