Posted by Jim Locker on January 11, 2001 at 15:46:33:
How often does it flood? Once a year? Once a century?
Sure you could buy flood insurance to insure a house in a flood plain. Lloyds of London will write anything.
You won’t like the price, though.
Flood plain? - Posted by Steve
Posted by Steve on January 11, 2001 at 15:42:25:
If a parcel of property is located in a flood plain, is it basically worthless? Could a potential home builder buy flood insurance to off set the risk?
Thanks
Re: Flood plain? - Posted by Bert G in ND
Posted by Bert G in ND on January 12, 2001 at 11:45:14:
I’m in Grand Forks, ND. You may have heard of the “little water problem” we had here a few years back that displaced 50,00 folks.
They’re still drawing lines here to re-determine the flood plain. Plus, there’s the 50-year plain, 100 yr, 500yr, depending on likelyhood of flooding. Main thing this means to the property owner is the cost of the insurance. If you’re on a flood plain, the lender will probably require flood insurance. The insurance is a Federal program, but you buy it thru your regular insurance agent.
The local government might have building code requirements for houses closer to the water. For example, if the property floods every year, you might want pontoons.
Re: Flood plain? - Posted by dewCO
Posted by dewCO on January 11, 2001 at 20:16:09:
Absolutely you can get flood insurance. I just had a buyer find a company here in CO and it cost her about double what the regular insurance costs. It was in a 100 yr. flood plain.
Flood Insurance and new builds… - Posted by David Krulac
Posted by David Krulac on January 11, 2001 at 16:21:40:
FEMA manages the flood insurance and the building in flood plains nationally. Existing houses in the flood plain will require flood insurance by either the bank or the homeowner’s insurance or both. New buildings are prohibited in the flood WAY, but not in the flood PLAIN. But to build in the flood plain you need to be OUT of the flood plain by elevation. So if your land is say 400 feet above sea level and the 100 year flood level is 405 feet, your house needs to be raised at least 5 feet above the ground with no basement, or inhabitable space below 405 feet. Local ordinances sometimes raise the building hieght by 1, 1.5 or 2 feet above flood level. If your local ordinance requires 2 feet above flood level you would need to be at 407 feet as the floor level of your lowest level.
We just went through all this to build in the flood plain less than 6 months ago, so this info is fairly current. You need a surveyor to do a topographic survey showing the elevations on your property and an engineer to certify that your plans raise the building out of the flood plain. hth
David Krulac
Re: Flood plain? - Posted by Redline
Posted by Redline on January 11, 2001 at 15:54:27:
I can only speak for around here and dunno if this is a federal thing or just local but …
Here homes in flood plain are required to have flood insurance and this is backed by FEMA so it’s affordable to the avg homeowner. I’m pretty sure it will cover the structure but NOT the contents incase of a flood.
As far as NEW construction in a flood zone, we just sold a property here recently where a builder basically had to submit plans to the the local Army Corps of engineers and they had to OK the building. They made him build it above ground (no basement) with a first floor containing no sleeping quarters.
Took quite awhile to get all the approvals and paperwork done (over a year) but it got done, the house got built and it’s being lived in as we speak.
RL