My property being confiscated by the feds

[Alan L.]

We bought our property on the creek after years of looking and months of pouring over FEMA maps etc. Built a building in 2000 and our new house in 2007, very carefully situated high over the creek. A good place....

I recently got a letter from our lender that all of a sudden we have to have flood insurance! Otherwise THEY will pay for it themselves and charge me.

Turns out FEMA hired a big engineering firm to redraw the flood maps (like the feds don't have anything else to spend money on). My house was not in it, now it is. They moved what looks like about 7 acres from zone x to zone A - that is from out of the flood plane to in it.

I talked to the big engineering firm that did the study. They said they were hired to draw the maps and that nobody did any surveying, they didn't set foot on my property at any time. However now that they have succeeded in moving my house into the flood plain while NOTHING downstream has changed at all, they would be happy to show up on my place and do the elevations to prove I am high enough to be excluded from the flood plane.

Price : $12,000 - $23,000 but I might still be in the flood plane when they are done.

Sounds like a pretty good deal for the engineering firm to move the maps, take in existing structures (and they said there are quite a few they took in) and then charge them to get them out again. All in cahoots with the federal government.

The bottom line is that my property value just dropped like a rock. I do in fact have flood insurance for a premium of $355 per year. But after the re-mapping my premiums would be over $4,000!

My property has been confiscated, pure and simple.

 

[ayelvington]

Don't blame FEMA. The National Flood Insurance Program is a very good thing.

I'm a former fed, and this is what you do: WRITE your senator and congressman requesting that they investigate the process for how the contractor rescored the flood rating for your property. Also check if the structure of your home is in or out of the flood plain.

You hired your federal representatives and their staff to work for you. Complaining on TBN does nothing to improve your situation. Use the process that you (as a voter) put in place to work your problem out.

The quality of the response you get will be a direct reflection of the quality of the representatives that you hired...

 

[Bird]

The bottom line is that my property value just dropped like a rock. I do in fact have flood insurance for a premium of $355 per year. But after the re-mapping my premiums would be over $4,000!

Hard to imagine the premiums going up that much. I'm not in a flood plain and mortgage companies don't require flood insurance to finance homes in this neighborhood, but a few years ago they did have flooding in the neighborhood, which I've been told got to the third house south of us. And the FEMA maps I looked at showed "moderate" risk. So anyway I bought flood insurance; just renewed it and mine went up from $274 last year to $294 this year. But $4,000???? Wow! I'd sure be writing our senators and representatives.

 

[arsenix2001]

Don't blame FEMA. The National Flood Insurance Program is a very good thing.

I'm a former fed, and this is what you do: WRITE your senator and congressman requesting that they investigate the process for how the contractor rescored the flood rating for your property. Also check if the structure of your home is in or out of the flood plain.

You hired your federal representatives and their staff to work for you. Complaining on TBN does nothing to improve your situation. Use the process that you (as a voter) put in place to work your problem out.

The quality of the response you get will be a direct reflection of the quality of the representatives that you hired...

LOLOL
Thanks man, you seriously just did make me laugh out loud. Alan, try praying to the map gods while your at it.
I agree you just got bent over and ......

 

[Transit]

If what you say is correct, find a lawyer that dose this kind of work not just any lawyer and sue, sue, sue. Go for their lungs, put them out on the street.
What ever documents you have save, use e-mail and save everything to one file on this one subject.

 

[Alan L.]

Don't blame FEMA. The National Flood Insurance Program is a very good thing.

I'm a former fed, and this is what you do: WRITE your senator and congressman requesting that they investigate the process for how the contractor rescored the flood rating for your property. Also check if the structure of your home is in or out of the flood plain.

You hired your federal representatives and their staff to work for you. Complaining on TBN does nothing to improve your situation. Use the process that you (as a voter) put in place to work your problem out.

The quality of the response you get will be a direct reflection of the quality of the representatives that you hired...

FEMA furnished the maps. We built based on the FEMA maps. Now FEMA has changed the maps, having never set foot on the property. FEMA's constractor WILL set foot on my property to see if they can undo what THEY did for a price. Stinks to high heaven.

You can't give people flood maps they rely on, then change them later. Nothing has changed since the maps were done last time. Just typical bureaucratic crap to justify somebody's job. Spend money that will have to be borrowed from the chinese to do what has already been done. And in the process put the screws to tax paying citizens who relied on the previous maps.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Alan, when you think about the change in the maps remember there are two basic possibilities. You refer to one which is a change in conditions (downstream), but a change in the knowledge of conditions will also support a change in the maps.

You might ask the engineering firm to specify the basis for moving the flood plane boundary. Some engineers are so conservative they could not function in a real job that requires practical solutions. But don't insult them or they will lock in their opinion as a matter of ego.

The more informed and professional you are about addressing your predicament, the better chance of getting some relief. Also, if someone has changed the downstream watershed that is causing the change in your flood risk, you may have a case against that person.

 

[Transit]

I agree 10,000 %. it is your call on the next steep.

 

[Alan L.]

Hard to imagine the premiums going up that much. I'm not in a flood plain and mortgage companies don't require flood insurance to finance homes in this neighborhood, but a few years ago they did have flooding in the neighborhood, which I've been told got to the third house south of us. And the FEMA maps I looked at showed "moderate" risk. So anyway I bought flood insurance; just renewed it and mine went up from $274 last year to $294 this year. But $4,000???? Wow! I'd sure be writing our senators and representatives.

Watch out Bird, the maps can change at any time and you might suddenly find your place "under water", even though the chances of a flood have not. Kind of like the bridge they are redoing near out house. Nothing wrong with it, but the feds wanted to spend some stimulus money they borrowed from the chinese, so the perfectly good bridge has to go. FEMA gets funding and they have to justify it so they create work for themselves, and cut in some buddies in private business while they are at it.

 

[Alan L.]

Alan, when you think about the change in the maps remember there are two basic possibilities. You refer to one which is a change in conditions (downstream), but a change in the knowledge of conditions will also support a change in the maps.

You might ask the engineering firm to specify the basis for moving the flood plane boundary. Some engineers are so conservative they could not function in a real job that requires practical solutions. But don't insult them or they will lock in their opinion as a matter of ego.

The more informed and professional you are about addressing your predicament, the better chance of getting some relief. Also, if someone has changed the downstream watershed that is causing the change in your flood risk, you may have a case against that person.

I spoke to one of the engineers and they indicated that they had been hired by FEMA to redraw the maps. It seems to me that had the maps stayed exactly the same then the firm would not have been able to justify their considerable fees. I was told that in my area nobody has actually shot the elevations and created an accurate topo map, and that basically both the old and new new are wild guess maps. For a large fee they would do this work on my property, that is, some taxpayers have to pay for what other taxpayers get for free. So, they just say my house is now under water and short of hiring them to find otherwise there is no recourse.

Makes no sense for FEMA to be doing these maps since obviously they cannot be relied on. Another 10 years from now they may change again.