A few months ago I was notified by Bank of America that my house is now in a FEMA Flood Zone AE which is a Special Flood Hazard Area and thus I had to have flood insurance.  I already had flood insurance because, well, because it’s smart.  But my house is not in Zone AE. Zone AE goes through my front yard but my house is in Zone X and this is what is securing the loan, what flood insurance insures, and what is rated for flood insurance purposes. I just couldn’t get Bank of America or my insurance agent to look at darn FIRM map and follow the logic outlined in the FEMA Flood Insurance Manual.  BTW, both Bank of America and my insurance agent use  a company called CoreLogic to issue what is called a ‘STANDARD FLOOD HAZARD DETERMINATION FORM’ but they don’t even look at Elevation Certificates prepared by a surveyor even if you have one ready for them.  The only thing they will consider is a Letter of Map Amendment/Revision from FEMA which by definition is a change to the FIRM Map.  Anyway, not being deterred by the process I made a Letter of Map Change (LOMC) application.  I did this on-line but in retrospect I should have mailed them a hard copy version of the form.  If I had then I could have had a surveyor fill out a portion of that form and that would have sufficed.

Since my property was built prior to the FIRM Map being adopted in my town there was NO APPLICATION FEE for the LOMC.  I applied and sent in pictures of my property and a plot plan and all kinds of supporting documents which truly should have resulted in an ‘out as shown’ determination but FEMA wanted an F-053_EC_May2017_RE_rev or an MT-1 Form 2 – Elevation Information Form prepared by a Professional Engineer or Land Surveyor.  For starters the Elevation Form is not even on the FEMA web site but they sent it to me after I called in.  Looking at this I decided I may as well just get an EC so I initially hired Target Surveying.  The crew they sent out seemed OK but wow was the EC form just all kinds of wrong.  We parted ways and I would NOT recommend them.  I then hired Legacy Surveying in Tequesta.  The qualifier there is a Greg Tucker whom I spoke to at length and he is a VERY knowledgeable person.  I submitted the EC to FEMA and inside of a few days they issued a LETTER OF MAP AMENDMENT DETERMINATION (REMOVAL).  This shows the insured building is located in FEMA Zone X and thus is NOT in a Special Flood Hazard Area.  I have sent this along to Bank of America, Core Logic and my insurance agent.

18-04-1479A-120217

Now, a few things I learned:

• Try to determine what the Lowest Adjacent Grade (LAG) of  the house is and ONLY apply if you know this is HIGHER than the Base Flood Elevation or BFE shown on the current FIRM Map.  For my property the LAG was 6.5′ and the BFE is 6′ where both are by the 1988 datum.
• If your property was built before the FIRM Maps were adopted then the LOMC process is FREE.
• If your property WAS NOT initially identified as being in a Special Flood Hazard Area on the Initial Flood Boundary Map then your house is NOT on ‘FILL‘ as defined by FEMA.  This matters in what FEMA application to choose.
• If your property WAS initially identified as being in a Special Flood Hazard Area on the Initial Flood Boundary Map then your house MAY be on ‘FILL‘ if fill was added to the land AFTER the date on the Initial Flood Boundary Map.  This matters in what FEMA application to choose.
• If I had used the mail in form to apply for the Letter of Map Change from FEMA and had the surveyor fill in a few numbers then I could have forgone the request for an EC from FEMA and I would have essentially KNOWN the outcome of the LOMC request.  If the LAG is higher than the BFE then the LOMC request should be approved.