During my career I have done several hundred fema floodplain certificates, but I have run into something that is driving me crazy.
A guy has a house and a swimming pool. He has a very small pool house by the pool. FEMA wants a certificate for the house and the for pool house, and and he is being required to get two insurance policies. The pool house and house are connected to same electric meter and are absolutely part of the same residential home establishment.
Also, they asked me for openings in the garage. He has an attached garage with a permanent opening 9 feet high and 24 feet wide with no garage door. I put it as a permanent opening and did not check the box that said it was an engineered flood vent. FEMA wrote a letter back to insurance company saying I could not use the garage opening. I don't care about the damn garage opening. The whole house and yard are 3 feet above the floodplain.
Then they question my use of NGVD88 instead of NGVD29. At that particular location both are within 0.01 feet of each other. I sent them the Corpscon printout verifying. I guess I should have just change the damn form, but I didn't.
Weird coincidence. Just yesterday morning I was talking with a nearby surveyor about FEMA and insurance company foolishness. He mentioned having to do an elevation certificate on a little pool house. I had never even imagined such a thing might happen until then.
Two days ago I received a call from a lender about an elevation certificate I did in December. She apologized up front. Said she wanted to know if by any chance I had also shot the elevations on a pole barn on that same property. She knew my answer would be negative and she was correct. She said she was being pressured to get elevation certificates for any "significant" structures on the parcel being mortgaged. She knew it was a very stupid idea and that is why she was apologizing for even asking. The value of the house is probably fifty times that of the pole barn. Why would anyone care?
The other surveyor I mentioned above told me that he had this experience only one time, at that, too, was for a pole barn. In his case the house was clearly not within the colored area of the FHBM that had to be used. However, the pole barn appeared to have the edge of the A Zone (undetermined number) running through it. The house was probably ten feet higher than where the pole barn was located. His client was forced to request LOMA's for both the house and the pole barn despite the elevation certificate for the request on the house listing the flood zone as "X".
Tax dollars at work.
The whole thing is an abomination...
I couldn't agree more, especially since the damn FEMA maps are in perpetual revision.
Have a great weekend! B-)
Every separate structure needs to have it's own separate policy. It's really the lenders call if all the structures on the property need to be insured, but they can't all be insured under the same policy. It's not homeowners insurance.
Marc,
When did they change that policy? I have never seen that happen before. That would mean that any detached carport would have to have a separate policy. That scenario is very common in our neck of the woods.
> Marc,
>
> When did they change that policy? I have never seen that happen before. That would mean that any detached carport would have to have a separate policy. That scenario is very common in our neck of the woods.
I think the criteria would be that a detached carport is not a 'living space' and does not contain any machinery in support of the living space.
As for the pool house, it may contain pumps,electrical or other mechanicals that they want insured under a separate structure.
Just speculation here.
A structure or building is defined as a walled and roofed building having at least two rigid walls and a roof. The term structure does not include open pavilions, bleachers, carports, and similar structures that do not have at least two rigid walls and a roof.
Building coverage is for the structure. Ten percent of a dwelling building's coverage may be applied to a detached garage. Residential garages used or held in use, for residential business or farming are not covered under a dwelling policy. These detached garages and other appurtenant structures must be insured under a separate policy.
Illinois Floodplain Management Desk Reference 2006 (Section 17.2)