Pelham, AL Flood Claims: Will It Put You in Repetitive Loss List?

On May 4th, Pelham and Central Alabama were severely impacted by huge storms that caused flooding in these areas. A lot of properties and homeowners were impacted and left with flood damage on their homes. Due to this, we're expecting a drastic increase in flood insurance claims considering the damages and since it's the natural response when you're faced with flood loss that might even cause you financial ruin.

In this blog, we want to cover how this flood claim can impact your flood insurance and property status, and the answer will this flood claim from the recent Pelham flooding cause you to be put in the repetitive loss properties again?

Spring Flood in Pelham 2021

As the month of May introduces itself and all the blooming Spring stuff, Central Alabama faced batches of torrential rains and storms that dumped 7 inches of rain. This brought about the constant threat of flash flooding that even the National Weather System (NWS) has to issue a flash flood emergency warning over the metro area. Some areas across central Alabama had flood water rise to 3-feet to the point that boats were actually needed just to get to places. This flooding also caused schools to close due to damages and about 97,000 power outages statewide.

After the Flood Claims

Now, it's expected that there will be a lot of flood claims that will come from Alabama due to this recent event and Pelham might be one of those areas with the higher count of flood claims.

Flood insurance claims will be the key to providing the proper coverage for impacted houses and residents. This means that once you file that claim, you're going to get the listed coverage on your flood policy in order to recover from this flooding. It may be that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or the private flood insurance market will decide on how to utilize this policy claim. They may choose to provide necessary coverages for repairs by picking their preferred repair company or they can provide you the money to start recovering.

On the other hand, flood claims have certain aftereffects that will impact not only your flood insurance but also your property's status when it comes to flooding. Generally, when you file a flood claim this shouldn't really impact your property other than helping it recover however this is only if you're filing for a claim the first time around. For Pelham residents, you may see after filing that claim that your house is now marked as a repetitive loss property.

Repetitive Loss Properties

Repetitive loss properties are insured buildings that filed more than one flood claim in the last ten years. So, if you previously filed for a flood claim from last year's flooding, this may mean that you're going to be a repetitive loss property.

In the case of the recent flooding in Pelham, it's most likely that locals have already filed a flood insurance claim for the flooding that happened early in February last year. Since the ruling is that there must be two or more claims made within the last ten years, this will be listed in FEMA's data. When you're on a repetitive loss list, you might face flood insurance rate increases upon renewing your flood policy.

In order to avoid FEMA's premium rate increase that's generally equal to 150% of the chargeable rate for your house, you may want to agree to FEMA's offer that you perform their approved flood mitigation efforts on your property. This way, you might still be on the repetitive loss list, but the increase in the flood premiums won't be there.

FEMA will also allow you to dispute this resolution on putting your property on the repetitive loss list. This can be done if you believe that your property's claims history is inaccurate or there are approved mitigation efforts made by the owner on the property in order to reduce future flooding and flood damage. However, this will be reviewed by FEMA, so it doesn't really guarantee that you're going to be removed from the repetitive loss list.

Flood claims may sound like a good deal when facing the aftermaths of flooding, but this is why we highly recommend that you should strategize with your insurance agent on what to do as these impacts will stick with the property forever when it comes to flood insurance, unlike other insurance policies. It's best to make sure that you understand what this can mean for your policy with FEMA and the availability of private flood insurance for your property.

Note that most private carriers won't write a policy if the property's risk of flooding is too high and being on the repetitive loss list may generally say that your house is very flood-prone.

So if you have questions on flood insurance claims, the repetitive loss list, flood insurance options, and anything about flood, feel free to reach out to us. Remember, we have an educational background in flood mitigation and we want to help you protect the value of your property long term. Click the links below to talk with us, get a quote for your flood insurance, and visit our YouTube channel for our daily flood education videos.