Why Is My Neighbors Flood Insurance Different?

Today we are talking about why your flood insurance premiums and flood insurance zones maybe different from your neighbors. Flood insurance zones can easily be different from property to property. Let's discuss some reasons why this might be?

Flood insurance zones range and they are not built like a straight line, square or rectangle. Other than coastal areas high risk flood zones are generally going to follow creeks, rivers, lakes, watersheds, and other possible run off areas.  Look at the picture of a high risk flood zone below.

As you can see from the picture above the high risk area does not follow a narrow path. As a result you can see how one property could easily be in a high risk area and another may not. Something else that has a big factor is either if a home is above the base flood elevation or if it is not. 

If you have one property with a basement and another property with a crawlspace then it could be a huge impact on flood premiums. Foundation types play a major role in flood premium, just like how a structure is positioned on land.

The lowest adjacent grade also known as LAG is the elevation of the ground, sidewalk or patio slab immediately next to the building, or deck support, after completion of the building. If the LAG is below the base flood elevation also known as the BFE then it generally removes the possibility of getting the flood zone changed. So the LAG on one property could be completely different than another property.

As you can see there can be many reasons why the flood insurance is different on your neighbors property or if it is accurate. If you have questions about flood insurance, getting flood zones changed, or would like to verify that you have the correct flood premiums then please reach out to the Flood Insurance Guru. You can visit our website, subscribe to our YouTube channel The Flood Insurance Guru or like our Facebook page The Flood Insurance Guru.