The Flood Insurance Guru Podcast Episode 14: Attached and Detached Garages

You won't have to park your garage and flood insurance questions.

In today's episode, we're going to discuss everything about garages: attached garage, detached garage, how they can impact your rate, and when they're covered by your flood insurance policy.

Garage

Now, garages are basically an extension of the main residence where they can be attached or detached. Now, depending on the type of garage you have will determine if the National Flood Insurance Program will cover it in your flood insurance policy.

First, in order for federal flood insurance to cover your garage, it has to be attached to the building or the overall structure of the property. If it's a detached garage, you will have to carry for it regardless if it's a residential structure or commercial property.

Now, what do you need to get it covered? Well, it has to be used for three things, either parking, access, or storage. If you have a living space and running water in that area, then it will be considered as a living area despite it originally built as a garage. There have been some lawsuits in the years past where the NFIP and FEMA were sued for not providing and overall declining coverage for this since there was running water in that garage area.

Again, the garage has to be used for either parking your vehicles, accessing your main property, or storing items and personal property in order for it to be covered by your policy.

Detached & Attached

As a property owner, the thing you want to understand is the difference between a detached garage and an attached one. The former is pretty easy, it's going to be completely separate from the building. Usually, this means that the exterior walls aren't connected to the main property. In terms of relevant flood insurance documents like elevation certificates, this type of garage won't be listed on them since it won't really impact your flood insurance policy with the NFIP. This is because detached garages are considered separate property from the main building.

To better know when to consider a garage as attached is by looking at how it's built. There are few things that you need to have in order for the NFIP to consider the garage as a part of the property: the garage and the main property are under one connected roof, there must be an overbearing wall or an elevated walkway that connects the two.

Flood Insurance Coverage

Now, we've covered this because there's a good difference between how federal flood insurance and private insurers provide coverage for these garages. Private flood insurance generally only requires the property owner to write the detached structure as part of their property. This means that you won't have to carry a separate policy for the detached garage. The NFIP has certain restrictions on the coverage they provide for garages and to be more specific, they usually provide 10% of your overall building coverage for the garage.

If you have a $250,000 building coverage in your policy then only $25,000 can be covered for your garage. The 10% will also be coming from your total building coverage, so if you already maxed out the $250,000 for your main property then the NFIP will most likely decline your coverage for your garage.

Lastly, you want to make sure that when you get coverage for your garage, you'll place the right amount or number in your policy. If you have a water heater, fridge, and basically the contents you have, you should make sure to include them, so when a loss occurs it will be covered. Overall, protecting your home or business from flood damage should be every owner's top priority. The best way to do this is by making sure you partner with your insurance agent and insurance provider on your flood insurance policy.

Remember, we have an educational background on flood mitigation, so if you have any questions on flood insurance policy and coverage, get a quote, or learn more about flood insurance, feel free to click our links below: