When does roof age matter in South Florida Real Estate? This comes up all the time.  People want to know how old is the roof? And for good reason.

Why does it matter how old the roof is? First, this is a big ticket item that has a life span so it does affect the value.  You may be able to ‘live with’ the old kitchen but if the roof no longer keeps the rain out then NG.  Second, if a roof is too old then one can not get insurance on the property.  No insurance then no loan, no loan then no sale.  Unless one is a cash buyer but they will ALWAYS want a discount.  How old can the roof be and still be insurable?  THIS VARIES FROM ONE COMPANY TO ANOTHER and can change at any time.  For Citizens Insurance, the answer is:

“Roofs older than 25 years (shingle or other type) or 50 years (tile, slate, clay, concrete, or metal) require documentation showing at least five years remaining useful life. A Florida-licensed inspector must conduct an inspection of the roof to check for any visible signs of damage or deterioration. When a roof has less than three years of remaining useful life, the homeowner must provide proof of a full-roof replacement to the inspector before any policy is written on the home.”

Now Citizens underwriting is subject to our Sunshine in Government laws so we know what the times are.  What about other insurance carriers?  They are free to establish any underwriting criteria they wish but GENERALLY SPEAKING ROOFS OLDER THAN ABOUT 20 YEARS ARE DIFFICULT TO INSURE THROUGH ANYONE BUT CITIZENS.

And, if one can not get insurance on the property then one can not finance it.

So, if you are selling a property with an old roof (20+) it is probably worth putting a new roof on it.

If you are buying a home with a roof that’s 15 years old you should be saving for a new roof to be installed.

If you are financially able you may be able to get a good deal on a house because it needs a new roof.  You will add the cost of the new roof into your permanent financing but these are non conforming loans so the rates are about 1/2% higher than the typical Fannie/Freddie loans.

Why does the Seller buy Title Insurance?

I’m paying for what?  Title Insurance!  Why?

Well, it’s ‘normal and customary’ here in South Florida for the Seller to pay for an Owners Title Policy.  These policies are far from cheap and the Seller often asks why?  Well, it’s for the benefit of both the the Buyer and the Seller.  This is an insurance policy standing behind the validity of the Seller’s conveyance of clear title. Good ‘marketable’ (something I can sell) title unencumbered by liens, clouds, errors or omissions.  Let’s just say there is no title insurance.  A few years go by and the Buyer (the new Owner) gets a notice from a lawyer that they have to pay off a lien, or someone shows up claiming to have an interest in the property but did not receive any money from it.  The Owner calls you and if you signed a warranty deed then you defend that claim.  Unless there’s a title insurance policy. Then they defend the claim.

With all the talk about Flood Insurance I decided to re-visit this old blog post.

I have an old survey of my property and it shows the finished floor (F.F. EL) of my house as say 8.1′ but this is based upon the NGVD 1929.  How do I convert that to the NAVD 1988 which the new flood maps use?

Why would I need this? I like to know the answer to a question before I ask it.  If my Lender or Insurer tells me I need an elevation certificate or I think I want one then I want to know if I should: A) fight them to apply the correct logic and classify the building and not my land, or 2) Have an elevation certificate done and ask my insurer to apply the post firm rates because I have enough of an elevation difference between the BFE and my finished floor to really get the rates down IF they insist on incorrectly classifying my building.  In order to make this decision I want to know the 1988 FF EL before I push one way or the other.  Also, it can be helpful to dtermine if a forcast storm surge will affect my property.

The Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) Maps were developed based upon the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 or NGVD 29. However there is a more current version of this which is the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) and the new (as of October 2017) flood zone maps use this new datum. The datum is defined as:

Datum: A reference surface used to ensure that all elevation records are properly related. The National Flood Insurance Program previously used the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD) of 1929, but all recent FIRMs have used the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD) of 1988. Both datum planes express elevations in relation to sea level. 

So, when we see on the new flood zone maps ZONE AE (EL 6) this means that the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) has been determines and it is 6′ above the NAVD 1988.

To Convert these elevations to the NAVD 88 Datum we use this page…

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/VERTCON/vert_con.prl

So, let’s look at 300 Xanadu Place. Looking this up on the County GIS site or where ever we get the Lat/Lon: 26.9247024, 080.0694433 and we see the difference is -1.59′.  (Note that  I recently looked at a property on the St Lucie River in Palm City and the conversion there was -1.45′)  These adjustments vary by location but this is very close to the published Palm Beach County wide ‘ball park’ number of -1.56′.  So in this example location if say the elevation shown on an old survey was 8.1 according to the 1929 datum then the 1988 datum elevation is 8.1′-1.59′ = 6.51′.

And, the flood zones are defined as:

Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). An area having special flood, mudflow or flood-related erosion hazards and shown on a Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM) or a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) Zone A, AO, A1-A30, AE, A99, AH, AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/AH, AR/AO, AR/A1-A30, V1-V30, VE or V. For the purpose of determining Community Rating System (CRS) premium discounts, all AR and A99 zones are treated as non-SFHAs.Shaded Zone X is a moderate risk areas within the 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplain, areas of 1-percent-annual-chance flooding where average depths are less than 1 foot, areas of 1-percent-annual-chance flooding where the contributing drainage area is less than 1 square mile, and areas protected from the 1-percent-annual-chance flood by a levee. No BFEs or base flood depths are shown within these zones. (Zone X (shaded) is used on new and revised maps in place of what was Zone B.)

So Chris,  How do I find out what my flood zone my house is in, if it is?

In Palm Beach county this is now very easy thanks to the folks in the GIS department at the county.  Go to this web site…

Just enter your property address and presto.  This tool reports the flood zone designation OF THE ZONE THAT TOUCHES YOUR PROPERTY AND THE “PENDING fLOOD ZONE”.

The Pending flood zone is based upon the maps proposed in Dec 2019.  The adoption of those was put off due to COVID and (thanks in no small aprt to myself) the country contested the accuaracy of tose maps.  And now in 2023 they are appealing the FEMA denial of the contention to basically a committee of scientists.  ANYWAY with risk rating 2.0 the FIRM maps are NO LONGER used to price your flood insurance BUT they are still used by the banks to determine if they will require you to carry flood insurance.  And they are used by the building department to determine how the proeprty can be built upon and/or rebuilt after a flood.

Be aware, just because a flood zone or a Special Flood Hazard Area touches your property, that does not necessarily mean your building is located within the flood zone.  The link above STATES the flood zone of the lot is say an AE if the contour goes through the lot, but it MUST touch the structure. Please carefully note the structure’s location in relation to the SFHA boundaries shown in the viewer to determine whether or not your structure is located within a SFHA.  If it’s in question then the building department will requir and elevation certificate from a surveyor.

If you reside in the unincorporated area and are uncertain please call the Palm Beach County Flood Information Hotline at 561-233-5374. If you reside in a municipality you should contact your local floodplain administrator.

Or, you can also use the FEMA Map Page.