Ugh. I have flood insurance. Never had a claim but that day could come any time. I live in a TH/Condo that has only a crawlspace. The house is raised up about 3 feet from the ground and 1 mile from the ocean. Basically I live at sea level in an area where the elevations for miles are in the 3 - 10' range. My flood most likely will emanate from a Nor'easter (notably the storm of '62 - which wiped out much of the town where I live) or from the storm surge accompanying a hurricane.

To get flood insurance you need to have an elevation certificate - you may have gotten one with your survey and settlement papers. If not, you can get whoever did the property survey to perform the elevation survery and give you the elevation certificate. If a new one has to be made it runs $300-500. Flood zones and the local topographic conditions detrmine the BFE and flood insurance rates are based on the BFE - base flood elevation, the square footage of your basement/crawlspace/garage, and the square footage of any flood vents built into your dwelling. The BFE for your house may be different from house next door. Basically this locates lowest living area on your house compared to the expected flood height for the 100-yr flood.

Anyway, if your bank requires it (and it may not have had that requirement a few years ago) you will have to procure it. Even if they did not require it then, if you were to refinance now, they may add the requirement. Banks are just looking for reasons not to give you money these days. Just like insurance companies.

To make an informed decision on whether to buy it or not, you really need that BFE for your property. If you Google "flood insurance" you'll find links to Fema, the national flood insurance program, and lots of info on elevation certificates, etc. One thing you may want to do regardless if you buy the insurance is to raise up all of your systems several feet from the floor - esp compressor for your A/C or heat pump. The elevation certificate will tell you how high you shoud raise them. It does not take much water to fry a compressor.

Now the UGH part - In the last 6 months I have tried twice to refinance my house and was denied both times due to insurance issues, and both times for issues beyond my control. The first was denied because the condo assn had not yet renewed the master hazard insurance coverage for the coming year, so there was only 1 month remaining on the existing policy. Denied. The 2nd time the mtg co decided the flood insurance the condo assn had in place was insufficient. Denied.

Oh the insurance company would love to have sold me "gap" insurance at an exhorbitant rate, but would still need the elevation certificate ($$$) so the additional costs to do this, plus carry the extra insurance every year far exceeded the savings on the monthly payments in the time I plan to remain in this house.

Of course the current mortgage company is perfectly happy with the insurance coverage limits. And guess what... IT'S THE SAME MORTGAGE COMPANY! Go figure?

I hate mortgage and insurance companies this week .....