FEMA Flood Maps - A Wave of Business for Surveyors

Inaccurate FEMA flood maps affect many property owners – even if the property isn’t located near an ocean, lake or river.

If property is located in the area FEMA has designated as floodplain, higher rates for insurance and difficulty selling the property is a common result.

Additionally, owners run a higher risk of experiencing a flood event. Flood maps are issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These maps are used as the basis for property insurance rates, permitting for construction, and are part of the documentation mortgage lenders require.

According to a 2017 Office of the Inspector General Report, only 42 percent of FEMA’s maps “adequately identified the level of flood risk”. If you live in a rural community, the chances of mapping being accurate are even lower. FEMA maps are supposed to be updated every five years, but that rarely happens. Sometimes a part of the map is amended, giving it a new effective date, yet the rest of the map may remain decades out-of-date. When a map is updated, it seldom includes important datum changes.

Why?

FEMAs maps are inadequate for a number of reasons.

First, they do not include future conditions projections, such as rising sea levels, changes in rainfall, expected population growth, and changes in impervious surfaces through land development. FEMA said that it has spent $200 million in recent years to update the maps. But a study in February found the agency’s efforts wanting.

Environmental Research Letters reported that more than 40 million Americans are exposed to serious flood risk at the 100-year-flood or 1% level – roughly three times more than the risk FEMA’s flood maps suggest.

Second, FEMA is underfunded and simply cannot keep up with the demand for updated maps. FEMA manages flood maps for about 22,000 communities across the U.S. Almost two-thirds of those maps have an “effective date”—the date it was last officially updated — more than five years old; some maps have been in place for more than 40 years.

Third, when FEMA seeks to change a map, it may face strong local opposition. Often, developers fight against it and the homeowner may never know that they are in a floodplain. Existing homeowners in a newly proclaimed floodplain often object to the new designation because it means increased property insurance and may reduce property values.

Only 42 % of FEMA’s maps adequately identified the level of flood risk

How can property owners protect themselves?

Getting property accurately surveyed can save significant time and money.

Surveyors are critical in helping property owners get correct information about their flood risk. When financing property, the mortgage lender relies on FEMA maps to determine whether the property is within a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). If so, by law, the lender will require flood insurance.

In this case, the buyer should ask for an Elevation Certificate that helps insurance companies rate the property in the correct risk category. If no Elevation Certificate exists, the buyer should hire a surveyor to produce it – this small investment pays off in insurance savings and peace of mind. If the survey shows that the SFHA designation is not correct, then this data can be used to ask FEMA to change the designation.

To complete this, the owner or the buyer needs to file a LOMA (Letter of Map Amendment) and pay a fee to FEMA (and include the Elevation Certificate) to get the correction on record. Until FEMA changes the designation, the lender will require flood insurance on the property. Generally, any flood insurance payments made during FEMA’s review of the designation are refundable if the Elevation Certificate results in a reclassification of the property. If the Certificate shows that the SFHA designation is correct, the certificate should be provided to the mortgage lender to make sure the property is listed with the correct risk category.

An opportunity for surveyors

Any prospective homeowner looking to purchase property in a SFHA (or is concerned about potential flooding) should know about elevation certificates. In these times of increasing severe precipitation events, property owners need solid information about the risks of flooding, and surveyors should be the source of that information. Surveyors have an opportunity to highlight this service as a way realtors can serve their customers better.

Monitoring floodplains using NGS or other precise control monuments, creating elevation certificates, and marking property boundaries provide lasting value to both realtors and homeowners.

In my experience, elevation certificates and LOMAs are usually pretty easy to do. It can take months for FEMA to respond, so billing upon submission is recommended.

Along with the elevation certificates, surveyors can provide lasting value to homeowners and realtors by using Berntsen bronze survey markers bearing their name and credentials. These markers reflect that care, accuracy, and quality that surveyors put into their work each and every day.